Too late or too soon? The replacement gilt paradox

Due to high annual culling rates, pig farms require a constant income of replacement gilts. Gilts typically reach puberty at nearly six months of age. Puberty may be induced through early boar exposure, therapy with steroid hormones and chorionic gonadotropins, and optimized by identifying biological predictors and risk factors. Old age at the time of the first mating is associated with an increased risk of premature culling, often attributed to reproductive failures and locomotor problems. While female prolifacy has increased substantially during the last few decades, selecting for litter size to optimize lifetime productivity would be more efficient after two parities. Additionally, uterine capacity and the number of functional teats should be considered in selecting future dams. For each female, the cost-effective number of parities at removal is determined by the cumulative number of pigs born and weaned during the total herd days.