A comparison of litter-mate pigs slaughtered at 200 and 260 lb. live weight

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Abstract
1. A co-ordinated trial has been carried out at eight centres to compare the performance of group-fed pigs slaughtered at about 200 lb. live weight (bacon weight) with that of litter-mates slaughtered at 260 lb. (heavy pigs).2. The bacon pigs were fed either ad lib. or restricted according to live weight, while the heavy pigs were all fed ad lib. with one group having the protein supplement withdrawn from the ration after the pigs had reached 140 lb. live weight.3. Growth rate, efficiency of food conversion and carcass quality (based on dissection) data are summarized in Table 5.4. In general, the results indicated that under the conditions that prevailed, and when the leanness of the carcass is the major consideration, the slaughter weight around 200 lb. was preferable to the heavier weight (about 260 lb.) both from the production and economic aspect.