Feeding and meat qualities of young pigs of different origin and intensity of formation in early ontogenesis

The results of studies of fattening and meat qualities of young pigs of different origin and intensity of formation in early ontogenesis are presented.  The economic efficiency of the results of the studies is calculated. The study was conducted under the conditions of pedigree reproducer for breeding pigs of the large white breed of LTD “Druzhba-Kaznacheevka” of Dnipropetrovsk region. The object of study was young pigs of English and Hungarian origin, as well animals of varying intensity of formation in early ontogenesis. Estimation of young pigs by absolute and integrated indicators of fattening and meat qualities was carried out taking into account the following quantitative characteristics: average daily weight gain for the period of control fattening, kg, age of reaching live weight of 100 kg, days, thickness of the lard at the level of 6–7 thorax , mm, length of cooled carcass, cm, length of bacon half carcass, cm, index “intensity of formation” (∆t), selection index (SI) and “T-factor”. The economic efficiency of the results of the research was calculated according to the indicator "average daily increase of live weight during the period of control fattening, kg". The analysis of the results of the research shows that the young pigs of the large white breed of the control herd by the age of reaching the live weight of 100 kg were outweighed by the minimum requirements of the Instruction for pig testing by 9.78%, by the thickness of the lard at the level of 6–7 thoracic vertebrae – by 30.33% and by length of the cooled carcass – by 3.52%. Taking into account the class of origin and index “intensity of formation, points” (∆t), the difference between the groups by age of reaching live weight of 100 kg, the thickness of the pelvis at the level of 6–7 thoracic vertebrae and the length of the cooled carcass ranges from 2.24 to 8.03%. It was found that in terms of the main indicators of fattening and meat quality, the young pigs of the large white breed of Hungarian breeding are more consolidated (К1 = 0.085–0.344, К2 = 0.086–0.338). The maximum increment of additional production (average daily weight gain during the control fattening period, kg) was obtained from young pigs of large white breed of English origin (2.39%) and animals with index ∆t at the level of 0.619–0.748 points (1.38%). To evaluate the animals of the main herd (brood boars, sows) according to the fattening and meat characteristics of their offspring, we suggest the use of SI and T-factor breeding indices.