Increased age at first-mating interacting with herd size or herd productivity decreases longevity and lifetime reproductive efficiency of sows in breeding herds.

Background: Our objectives were to characterize sow life and herd-life performance and examine two-way interactions between age at first-mating (AFM) and either herd size or herd productivity groups for the performance of sows. Data contained 146,140 sows in 143 Spanish herds. Sow life days is defined as the number of days from birth to removal, whereas the herd-life days is from AFM date to removal date. Herds were categorized into two herd size groups and two productivity groups based on the respective 75th percentiles of farm means of herd size and the number of piglets weaned per sows per year: large (> 1017 sows) or small-to-mid herds ( 26.5 piglets) or ordinary herds ( 0.10). Conclusion: We recommend decreasing the number of late AFM sows in the herd and also recommend improving longevity and lifetime efficiency of individual sows.