UTILIZATION OF PC SOW-MANAGEMENT-PROGRAMS IN PIG-TESTING SCHEMES - 1ST COMMUNICATION - RECORDING QUALITY AND UTILIZATION OF DATA FOR ESTIMATION OF BREEDING VALUES FOR REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS

Recording quality is very important For using data in pig evaluation. In the present study utilization of data out of PC sow-management-prog rammes (SMP) of weaner production farms was investigated, The traits l itter size, rearing performance and interval between weaning and marin es are accurately recorded. The influence of service sire could not be considered sufficiently by evaluation of mating response due to missi ng or false boar numbers. Information of stayability and live-performa nce is lost In some cases, because the data of culled sows are deleted very quickly after removing sows from the herd. Data quality for numb er and type of abnormalities per tilter weaning losses, culling reason of sows and piglet weight at birth and at weaning is very poor. The a ccuracy of data available from sow management programmes shows large d ifferences between farms. Besides the high quality of data the estimat ion of breeding values requires complete pedigree information of sows. Only 32 % of the sows out of a sample of 58 weaner production farms c ould be attached to their parents. Quality of recorded pedigree inform ation varies greatly between farms. This results in a poor structure o f data to estimate genetic parameters. For estimating breeding values from SMP-data these should be recorded in selected large weaner produc er farms with accurate recording (contract farms). Genetic parameters especially considering crossbreeding effects have still to be estimate d using suitable data.