Beating heat stress by choosing the right sow

Modern breeding sows are highly productive, but there is still potential to achieve even better results for reproduction. These targets can be made by selecting lines that are particularly robust and which will perform well under a range of environmental conditions. Reproductive performance in sow lines is affected by several factors. Only 1-3% of the total variation in sow fertility shown by differences between farm-month averages is due to service sire effects. Genetics account for about 8%.