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Company boars getting ratings for their enthusiasm and the quality of work
Yorkshire-based pig breeders ACMC have come up with a way of rating boars for enthusiasm for their job.
At six months old, all the company's boars are tested for reaction to a dummy sow and scored for libido from 1 ('Timid') to 4 ('Excellent Worker').
The result goes on the boar's personal record, along with the results of a semen test and the sire-line scores for weight gain, feed conversion, backfat and muscle depth.
And the whole record is summed up on a Boar Quality Test Certificate which goes out with the animal when it starts stud work.
ACMC said in a press release on the system: "Although AI now accounts for 75 to 80 per cent of pig services nationally, the boar is still a very important animal.
"Most can sire 6,000 piglets in a year using on-farm AI.
"This means they must not only be of superior quality and fertile but must also exhibit a high libido.
"With the cost of a missed service amounting to around 2.50 per day, libido and fertility are vitally important to pig farmers, who want their sows in pig without unnecessary delay."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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