Authors
Title
Abstract
When utilizing the first farrowing sows for slaughter purposes, after they have reared their first litter, it is possible to decrease costs of the pork meat production, because valuable slaughter material is obtained at the same time as are piglets. The basic prerequisite to gain a profit is that the first farrowing sows enter a reproductive cycle early enough, i.e. it is necessary to maximally lower the age of fertile estrus to occur, and to produce numerous litters. In this paper, it was proved that the application of glucose-supplemented diets at specific, exactly predetermined time points resulted in a periodic increase in the level of insulin, and in other metabolic hormones accelerating the development of ovarian follicles and the number of ovulations. It was stated that a biotechnical method of hormonal estrus stimulation applied strongly influences the results of gilt reproduction. The usefulness of PMSG and hCG preparations in inducing and synchronising estrus in the first farrowing sows, which were previously fed insulinogenic diets, was also confirmed by our previous investigations. An alternative method of accelerating the sexual maturity of first farrowing sows is to expose them to contacts with a mature boar. It was proved that a group of gilts stimulated by the presence of boar showed an earlier fertile estrus (p<0.01). In addition, the first farrowing sows produced a satisfactory number of live piglets in a litter amounting to averagely 9.50 (the first reproductive cycle). The hitherto results of assessing the slaughter value of gilt carcasses indicated that both their slaughter valued and their meat quality were high. The first farrowing gilts were slaughtered at an age of about 11 months; their fattening characteristic was clearly lower, and their musculature was higher if compared with the average slaughter animals at an age of about 6 months. This high muscling and low fattening of the carcasses examined, despite their high body weight, are features distinguishing the first farrowing sows from heavy porkers that are similar to them in age and body weight. The meat of older animals was always a valuable raw material used to produce delicacy and high quality meat products owing to its exceptional taste, and nutritive and processing values. The initial results of the assessment of meat quality have fully confirmed the high quality of meat obtained from first farrowing gilts.
Keywords
estrus induction, carcass and meat quality, primiparous gilts