The effects of continuous boar contact on the oestrus detection rate of weaned sows

Abstract

A study was conducted at a commercial piggery to examine the effects of housing weaned sows either adjacent to or away from boars on the oestrus detection rate. One hundred and eighty-eight sows were studied and boars were used for oestrus detection. There was a high oestrus detection rate in the study with only 1.0% of sows in both treatments unmated by 21 days post-weaning. Although there appeared to be no significant treatment effect on the oestrus detection rate, there was evidence of some difficulty with oestrus detection in the Adjacent treatment: the percentages of sows mated only once in the Adjacent and Away treatments were 9.6 and 1.1%, respectively (X12=6.5, P<0.05). There were no..