Abstract

The study investigated the dependence of the fattening qualities of pigs and the economic efficiency of their breeding on their genetic origin. Two groups of 28 sows of Danish and Canadian origin inseminated with semen from Durok boars served as research material. A control group consisted of F1 sows of the Landrace and Large White Danish breeds inseminated with semen from Danish Durok boars. The group II, on the other hand, consisted of F1 sows of similar breeds from Canadian selection inseminated with semen from Canadian Durok boars. The studies focused on the efficiency of the sows’ reproductive function, the growth intensity of the hybrid piglets and the efficiency and profitability of their rearing and fattening. Methods of analogue pairs and statistical data analysis were used. It was found that piglets of Canadian origin had a 7.5 higher average head weight during the weaning period, which contributed to a 7.5 higher market value and at the same time to a 6.7 higher income from rearing a piglet during this period and to a 3 higher profitability of its rearing compared to analogues of Danish origin. It was shown that animals of Danish origin had a 9.6 higher gross growth of the piglet litter during the fattening period, which gave them a 7.6 higher weight at the end of the fattening period and contributed to a 7 higher cost price for this period, a 7.6 higher market value and a 10.1 higher feedlot income and a 0.77 better feedlot profitability compared to Canadian-bred counterparts. We recommend the use of sows of Danish origin if the farm intends to sell weaned piglets, in the industrial farms. If the farm intends to sell full-grown or (fattened) slaughter pigs, it is advisable to use pigs of Canadian origin. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2024