The term “breeding objective” is a collective term for the traits that are to be improved by the breeding. The breeding objective is established with the starting point being the cost-effectiveness of the pig producer and the slaughterhouse. The breeding objective is defined based on the production of finishers in a Danish combined piglet production and finisher herd. The "Pig Research Centre" sets out the breeding objective for the three breeds within DanBred.
The traits summarised in the breeding objective must meet the following requirements:
- they must be significant for economic and/or production reasons
- the economic value of the traits must be definable
- they must be hereditary
- they must be measurable, directly or indirectly.
In general, the following applies: The more traits are summarised in a breeding objective, the lower the growth per trait. The total economic benefit of the progress of the traits summarised in the breeding objective can however be greater. For this reason, the breeding objective is defined from a combination of the traits that provide the most benefit.
The breeding objective within DanBred currently contains the following traits:
- daily weight gain
- feed conversion ratio
- lean meat percentage
- conformation
- killing out percentage
- longevity (of sows)
- litter size (live born piglets at day 5 days - LP5)
There are different breeding objectives for the DanBred Duroc boar breed and the sow breeds of DanBred Landrace and DanBred Yorkshire, because the longevity trait of the boar breeds do not play a role. The economic values are revised at regular intervals, as are the traits that are summarised in the breeding objective. The last revision was undertaken in 2011.
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| The traits for the DanBred Duroc boar breed and the distribution of genetic growth (measured as cost-effectiveness). |
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| The traits for the DanBred Landrace and DanBred Yorkshire sow breed and the distribution of genetic growth (measured as cost-effectiveness). |