A comparison of the Duroc, Hampshire, Landrace, and Large White as terminal sire breeds of crossbred pigs slaughtered at 85 kg liveweight

Abstract

Anon-farrnstudywasundertaken,frrstly, to compare the Duroc and Hampshire as terminal sires in a three-way cross including the Landraceand Large White breeds and, secondly, to evaluate the latter cross against a two-way backcross involving the White breeds. Three boars of each sire breed were mated with crossbred sows of Large White, Landrace breeding and the progeny were grown to 85 kg liveweight on ad libitum feeding. Duroc-and Hampshire-sired litters hadrelatively fewer stillbirths but breed of sire did not influence the number oflive births in the litter or litter size at weaning. Durocand Hampshire-crosses reached slaughter weight 4 days earlier than the Large White-and Landracecrosses. They also had similar killing-out percentages and backfat measurements and these were higher and lower respectively than the crosses of the White breeds. Hampshire crosses had the largest eye muscles in cross-sectional area. Tissue composition of the carcass was not significantly different in Duroc-and Hampshire-crosses but lean and bone contents were higher and subcutaneous fat content was lower compared with the crosses of the White breeds. Breed of sire did not influence joint proportions and had little effecton the distribution of tissues within the carcass.

A comparison of the Duroe, Hampshire, Landrace, and Large White as terminal sire breeds of crossbred pigs slaughtered at 85 kg liveweight

“…Overall, the present findings coupled with those of the previous paper (Smith et al 1990) suggest that benefits in economy of production and carcass composition are likely to arise from using the Duroc and Hampshire breeds as terminal sires on whitecross dams compared with Landrace or Large White boars. The outcome regarding meat quality of the crosses is not so clear, particularly with respect to the condition of the muscle tissue in Hampshire crosses and the intramuscular fat level and its association with eating quality of the meat in Duroc crosses.…”

“…Results from the first part of this study (Smith et al 1990), along with those of previous experiments conducted here ) and overseas (McGloughlin et al 1988) have shown that pigs sired by Duroc or Hampshire boars frequently grow faster, have higher carcass dressingout percentages, and produce carcasses with less fat and larger eye-muscle areas than those sired by Landrace or Large White boars. With Duroc crosses these superior performance characteristics have generally been accompanied by higher levels of intramuscular fat which are considered by some to be beneficial for eating quality (Barton-Gade 1987; Barton-Gade 1988;Martel et al 1988;Wood et al 1988;.…”

“…Details of the animals, their housing, feeding, and management have been given by Smith et al (1990). Briefly, the pigs came from one commercial farm and were the entire-male and female offspring of Duroc, Hampshire, Landrace, andLarge White boars, which had been mated with sows containing varying proportions of the Landrace and Large White breeds.…”

“…The objective of the study reported here was to compare quality characteristics of meat from crossbred progeny sired by Duroc, Hampshire, Landrace, and Large White boars, thereby supplementing the performance and composition data for those crosses reported by Smith et al(1990).…”

A multi-population survey on swine feeding behavior with electronic feeding devices

“…The main characteristic of American Duroc is that it has a fast growth rate (Smith et al, 1990). In our studies the average body weight of Duroc is lower than the other two breeds from entrance to 100 days in the test station.…”