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The UK pig industry has traditionally used a Large White terminal sire over a Large White x Landrace dam but over the last couple of years there has been a move to three-way crosses with Hampshire or Pietrain boars as the terminal sire. Three-breed crosses should have greater hybrid vigour and are associated with increased piglet vigour, improved response to weaning, faster growth rates and lower mortality in all phases. Such attributes would help to improve FCR and daily liveweight gain of the finisher herd.
This large scale study conducted by the Pig Development Centre now provides an independent comparison of the performance of piglets from each of the three breed crosses on the same commercially-based research farm and an impartial assessment of the major intrinsic differences between modern sire breeds for the use of British farmers.
Summary and conclusions
Press release