Mating Black Sow with Supper Boar

Livestock farmers generally appreciate the time and input costs required to grow animals from birth to market weight. What is sometimes overlooked is the substantial expense involved with maintaining the mature breeding animals that are necessary to produce any stock for subsequent growing and finishing. Profitability in any commercial livestock-breeding unit is related closely to reproductive efficiency. Unfortunately, some producers and even many of their "expert" advisers pay insufficient attention to this aspect.

No presently available procedure allows prediction of current or future fertility. Thus, accurate monitoring of immediate past performance is essential to identify problems quickly and to initiate solutions before consequences become too severe. Some considerations for the assessment of performance and suggestions for problem solving are presented later in this section.

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Mating Black Sow with Supper Boar