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Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 8/25/1995 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Results show incorporation of females that are one-half of these Chinese breeds into a crossbreeding program will result in progeny with a significant decrease in growth rate but an insignificant decrease in yield of trimmed lean cuts at a constant carcass weight. The documented increased reproductive potential of these Chinese crosses must be considered when evaluating the overall profitability of the crossbreeding program. The relative value of reproduction, growth, and carcass traits will vary among producers. However, these results would suggest that females containing one-half Chinese breeding may increase profits under some production and marketing scenarios. Technical Abstract: Pigs were the progeny of White Composite (WC) boars mated to F1 Duroc x WC, Meishan x WC, Fengjing x WC and Minzhu x WC gilts. Meishan and Fengjing crosses had more nipples than Duroc and Minzhu crosses. Meishan and Minzhu crosses had a higher survival at birth than Duroc and Fengjing crosses, but breed types did not differ significantly for survival to 14 or 28 d of age. .Duroc crosses were heavier than Fengjing and Minzhu crosses at 0, 28, 56, 70, 98, 126, and 154 d of age; they were heavier than Meishan crosses at 0, 28, 98, 126, and 154 d of age. Chinese crosses had similar weights at most ages, although Meishan crosses were heavier than Fengjing and Minzhu crosses at 126 and 154 d of age. Breed types did not differ significantly for feed efficiency during the nursery period. Over the entire finishing period, Duroc cross gilts (.3310) were less efficient than Meishan (.3436), Fengjing (.3454), or Minzhu crosses (.3466); among barrows Meishan crosses (.3176) were least efficient, Fengjing crosses (.3263) were most efficient and Duroc (.3211) and Minzhu (.3209) were intermediate but not significantly different from the Meishan or Fengjing crosses. At a constant age, Duroc crosses had longer carcasses, greater longissimus muscle area, and heavier slaughter weight, carcass weight, and weight of untrimmed cuts and trimmed cuts than the Chinese crosses. There were few significant differences among breed types for carcass traits at a constant carcass weight. Results show, that relative to one-half Duroc females, incorporation of one-half Chinese females into a crossbreeding program will result in progeny with a significant decrease in growth rate, but an insignificant decrease in yield of trimmed lean cuts at a constant carcass weight. |
