A. A. Belous1, E. A. Trebunskih2, O.V. Kostyunina1, A. A. Sermyagin1, N.A. Zinovieva1
1Federal Scientific Center of Animal Husbandry – L. K. Ernst All-Russian Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, pos. Dubrovitsy, 60, Podol’skii r-n, Moskovskaya obl., 142132, Russian Federation
2OOO “Breeding-Hybrid Center”, ul. Kalinina, 1, s. Verkhnyaya Khava, Verkhnekhavskii r-n, Voronezhskaya obl., 396110, Russian Federation
Abstract. Improving the efficiency of feed consumption is one of the key tasks in ensuring the profitability of pig-breeding. Therefore, it was relevant to define the exact individual characteristics of feed consumption, increase in live weight, and other indicators that may contribute to the solution of the problem. The purpose of the research was to appraise the possibility of using these automatic feed stations to characterize feed conversion and feed behaviour of Duroc boars to improve pig breeding. We studied the feed behaviour indicators of 331 Duroc boars using the automatic feeding stations GENSTAR (Cooperl, France) and Schauer (Schauer, Austria). Feed costs per 1 kg of live weight gain (feed conversion, FC) were calculated as the ratio of feed consumed to live weight gain for the entire growing period at the feed station. Genetic and phenotypic correlations, as well as the heritability coefficient, were determined using the REMLF90 program. A linearly negative dependence (R2 = 22.2%) of FC on the average daily increase (ADI, g) was found. The average and average adjusted value of feed conversion (FCadj) for the growing period was 2.56 kg/kg with an average daily feed consumption of 2379 g and a high level of average daily gain (939.4 g). The heritability of the FCadj indicator was at the level of 0.301 that indicated moderate genetic variation within the studied population in terms of the value of this indicator. We revealed high and moderate correlations between FCadj and such pigs’ feed behaviour signs as the length of stay at the feed station per day (r = -0.36), feed consumption rate (r = 0.50), and the average time spent at the station per visit (r = -0.77). The research results indicated that it is promising to use these indicators in pig breeding to improve the accuracy of the assessment of repair boars by feed consumption efficiency.
Keywords: feed behaviour; feed conversion; heritability; correlations; pigs; Duroc breed.
Author Details: A. A. Belous, junior research fellow, post graduate student (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.); E. A. Trebunskih, zootechnician breeder; O.V. Kostyunina, D. Sc. (Biol.), head of laboratory; A. A. Sermyagin, Cand. Sc. (Agr.), head of division; N.A. Zinovieva, D. Sc. (Biol.), member of the RAS, director.
For citation: Belous A. A., Trebunskih E. A., Kostyunina O.V., Sermyagin A. A., Zinovieva N.A. Evaluation of Feed Conversion Signs and Feed Behaviour of Duroc Boars Using Automatic Feed Stations. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2019. Vol. 33. No. 8. Pp. 63–67 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.24411/0235-2451-2019-10814.