Analysis of post-weaning growth in pigs

Abstract

1. The post-weaning growth of 135 litters has been analysed with a view to determining the relationship of certain arbitrary subdivisions with each other. For this purpose, the weight increases during three periods of 28 days have been denned in two ways—first, by age, the periods being 10–14, 14–18, and 18–22 weeks, and secondly, by weight, the periods beginning at 40, 80 and 120 lb. and continuing as before for 4 weeks.2. When the periods are defined by age, the mean increase per pig per litter is affected by weaning weight, but not by litter size (Table III). The variability of the individual increases becomes greater as the pigs become older and heavier (that is, passing from one period to a later one), but less within a period as the rate of growth increases (Table IV). It was not affected by litter size.3. The distribution of individual weights became increasingly skew with age. This is regarded as a graphical illustration of the fact that while absolute rate of growth is increasing, initially small animals must fall farther and farther behind (Graph 3).4. The correlations between the average litter increases in different periods were calculated for litter sizes 6–11. In general, the coefficient for periods 1 and 2 was about 0·4, and for periods 2 and 3 about 0·6 (Table VI). This is interpreted to mean that, when judged by results over the whole time under observation, litters with a high correlation between the increases in weight during short periods are not properly comparable with those with a low correlation. By this method, differences in rate of growth having an important influence on carcass quality may be obscured.