Physical performance: rearing and finishing herds

By Bethan Wilkins

You can find the latest Agrosoft figures for GB breeding, rearing and finishing herds on the AHDB website. The most recent figures cover the 12 months ending September 2021.

Finishing herd

For the finishing herd, there isn’t a strong trend over the past year. The finishing feed conversion ratio (FCR) was 2.78, only marginally lower than the 12 months to September 2020. Looking at the trend, it seems there has been some volatility in performance across the quarters, when compared to the previous year. Daily liveweight gain was also little changed at the finishing stage, falling from 867g to 863g.

In contrast to the stability above, there was generally an increase in finishing mortality over the year, with the latest average standing at 3.7%, up from 3.3% the year before.

Rearing

It seems the FCR of the rearing herd has generally worsened over the past year, moving from an average of 1.74 in the 12 months to September 2020 to 1.85 in the latest 12-month period. However, there was a strong increase in daily liveweight gain, with the latest average reaching 519g/day, the highest on record. Likely related to this, pigs have also been moving onto the finishing unit at higher weights, although the faster weight gain means days on the rearing unit have still fallen compared to the year before. Considering the poorer FCR, more weaner/rearer feed has been needed per pig.

In contrast to the finishing stage, mortality at the rearing stage has showed little change overall, falling from 4.2% to 4.1%.

More recent months have presented challenges for some producers, with pigs being held on farm for longer than usual. This would be expected to challenge usual performance levels.

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