4 www.pigchamp.com Spring 2025 In US breeding herds, data collection is widespread; yet too often, this information remains fragmented across software systems. While producers rely on reports for sow records, task management, and performance summaries, many overlook a critical opportunity: harnessing advanced analytics to maximize reproductive efficiency, profitability, and sow longevity. The solution is strategic data analysis. By pinpointing key performance drivers, producers and veterinarians can refine management practices to shorten wean-to-estrus intervals, boost breeding success, and improve farrowing rates—directly translating to herd productivity and lifetime performance. The objective of this study was to assess individual sow factors associated with sow efficiency, defined as a wean-to-estrus interval (days), subsequent farrowing success, and subsequent total born. Methods Experimental data was sourced from six lactation trials conducted between 2021 and 2022 on a commercial sow farm. To ensure consistency and limit variability in the study, animals were housed in the same lactation rooms, had the same genetics, and had no Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) or Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDV) health challenges. The final dataset had 4,300 observations, including productivity performance, daily lactation feed intake, sow and litter weights, caliper measurements, and subsequent performance. Generalized linear regression models were built WITH SOW EFFICIENCY Factors Associated Linking lactation feeding patterns, litter performance, and sow characteristics to sow efficiency metrics. Researchers: Elly Kirwa Rafael da Rosa Ulgium, Ana Paula Mellagi, and Gustavo Silva of VDPAM, Iowa State University; and Beau Peterson, Caleb Grohmann, and Matt Frizzo of Carthage Innovative Swine Solutions, LLC Risk factors associated with wean-to-estrus interval (WEI). The plot presents the effects of parity, lactation average daily feed intake (ADFI) for the first seven days, piglets after cross-fostering, and lactation ADFI intake pattern on wean-to-estrus interval (in days). The bars represent the mean WEI for each category, with error bars indicating the 95% upper confidence intervals. The letters above the bars indicate significant differences among groups. Categories that share at least one letter are not significantly different from each other, whereas those with distinct letters are statistically different (P <0.05). Figure 1 Risk Factors Associated with Wean-to-Estrus Interval
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