The Effects of Breed, Season and Site on Pre-weaning Performance of Dalland and Duroc Pig Breeds and Their Reciprocal Crosses

Abstract Pig performance depends on their genetic merit and the environment in which they are raised. A research study aimed at evaluating the pre-weaning performance of offspring obtained from Dalland and Duroc pure breeds and their reciprocal crosses was carried out. Records of 267 sows in first and second parity comprising 2751 piglets were collected from two Pig Industry Board Farms in Arcturus and Bulawayo. Reproductive and pre-weaning data including number born alive, weaning percentage, average weaning weight, average daily gain and pre-weaning mortality were collected. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) fitted with a mixed model of the General Linear Model procedure of Minitab version.14 was used to analyze the data to establish breed, season and site effects as well checking for existence of first order interactions. Where differences in means were observed, the means were separated using the Turkey’s test at 5% level of significance. Results from this study revealed that breed significantly affected (p < 0.05) average birth weight with pure Dalland and Duroc breeds having heavier piglets of 1.57kg compared to 1.56kg for Dalland boar x Duroc sow and 1.49kg for Duroc boar x Dalland sow respectively. Other pre-weaning performance parameters such as number born alive, weaned percentage, average weaning weight, pre-weaning average daily gain and pre-weaning mortality (%) were similar for pure breeds and reciprocal crosses. Performances of pigs across sites and across seasons were similar. There were no first order interactions suggesting that the performance of the Duroc, Dalland pig breeds and their reciprocal crosses was similar across sites and seasons.