Some innovations in pig farming and their zootechnical assessment

The purpose of this work was to investigate the life expectancy, duration of breeding use, and reproductive qualities of sows of the large white breed of French selection, based on the obtained data to develop a new way of evaluating sows according to their operational value, as well as to calculate the economic efficiency of their use in the conditions of the industrial complex. The research was carried out in the conditions of the breeding plant for breeding large white pigs of Agroprime Holding LLC of the Odesa region and the animal husbandry laboratory of the Institute of Grain Crops of the National Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Evaluation of sows by indicators characterizing the level of their adaptation and reproductive qualities was carried out taking into account the following characteristics: life expectancy, months; duration of tribal use, months; received farts during the period of breeding use of all, received live piglets of all, head.; multifertility, goal; high fertility, kg; nest weight at the time of weaning at 28 days, kg; preservation of piglets until weaning, %. A comprehensive assessment of the sows of the general sample and different operational values was carried out according to the methodology of Berezovsky (2019) and biometric processing of research results – according to Kovalenko et al. (2010). It was established that the sows of the controlled population are characterized by high indicators of life expectancy, duration of breeding use, and reproductive qualities. Regarding fertility and litter weight at the time of weaning at 28 days, the sows of the controlled population belong to the elite class. A significant difference be-tween sows of the category “high operational value” (I experimental group) and “low operational value” (II sub-experimental group) was established by the duration of life (7.9 months; td = 7.67), the duration of breeding use (8.3 months; td = 7.61), the number of farrowings obtained (1.7 farrowings; td = 9.44), the number of live piglets (24.9 goals; td = 10.50), multifertility (1.1 goals; td = 3.23), high fertility (0.03 kg; td = 0.67), the weight of the nest at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days (8.0 kilograms; td=3.07), survival of piglets before weaning (2.7 %; td = 1.52) and M. D. Berezovsky's index (3.43 points; td = 3.26). The number of reliable correlations between life expectancy, duration of breeding use, absolute indicators of reproductive qualities of sows, and the index “exploitation value of the sow” (EVS) is 75.0 %. The criterion for selecting sows of high operational value for the controlled population is the “EVS” index value at 220.90 or more points.


Introduction
The work experience of agricultural specialists and the results of research by scientific institutions indicate that intensifying the breeding process in the pig industry is an important factor in increasing the production of high-quality pork.Along with this, solving the issues of optimizing the feeding and keeping of animals of different sexual age groups, veterinary safety, and state funding is also important (Biriukova & Makovska, 2011;Hryshyna, 2011;Herrero-Medrano et al., 2015;Tsereniuk et al., 2018;Khramkova, 2019;Tsybenko et al., 2021;Vashchenko & Berezovskyi, 2021).It provides for the introduction of innovative methods of evaluation and selection of highly productive animals, the use of foreign breeding animals, as well as research into the level of their operational value (Hetia, 2009;Shulha et al., 2011;Ivanov et al., 2012;Dudka, 2020;Khalak, 2022;Khalak et al., 2022;Khalak & Hutyi, 2022).
The operational value of sows characterizes their adaptation to the conditions of keeping (life expectancy and breeding use) and productive qualities (Grün et al., 2014;Sappok et al., 2015;Saladrigas-García et al., 2022;Wijesiriwardana et al., 2024).To determine this indicator, agricultural specialists and scientists use the sow evaluation scale, the authors of which are foreign scientists (Table 1).
These tables show that to determine the operational value of a sow, the author uses one indicator, "the number of live piglets at the time of birth", calculated per one farrowed sow and one inseminated sow.
The above determines the relevance and vector of our further work.
The aim of the work -to investigate the life expectancy, duration of breeding use, and reproductive qualities of sows of the large white breed of French selection, based on the obtained data to develop a new way of evaluating sows according to their operational value, as well as to calculate the economic efficiency of their use in the conditions of the industrial complex.

Materials and methods
The experimental part of the work was carried out in the conditions of the breeding plant for breeding pigs of the large white breed of "Agroprime Holding" LLC of the Odesa region and the animal husbandry laboratory of the State Institute of Grain Crops of the National Academy of Sciences.The work was carried out following the program of scientific research of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine No. 31, "Genetic improvement of agricultural animals, their reproduction and preservation of biodiversity" ("Genetics, preservation and reproduction of biological resources in animal husbandry").
The evaluation of sows of the large white breed of French breeding was carried out taking into account the following quantitative characteristics: piglets obtained during the period of breeding use, total, live piglets obtained, total; multifertility, goal; high fertility, kg; nest weight at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days, kg; preservation of piglets until weaning, %.
The operational value of the sow was determined by the formula: (1) where: EVS is the "exploitation value of the sow" index, point; DBU -duration of breeding use (from the beginning of the first farrowing to the last weaning of piglets), months; LF -Life expectancy of a sow (from birth to the previous weaning of piglets), months; P -number of farrowing; LSP -length of service period (from the date of the last weaning to fertile insemination), days; K is the length of the period from the date of the previous insemination to the establishment of the sow's fertility by ultrasound, days.The zootechnical norm of the duration of the period (LSP + K) is 35-38 days or 1.14-1.24months (Khalak et al., 2021;2022;2023).
The index "exploitation value of the sow" in sows of the I and II experimental groups ranged from 220.90 to 470.41 and 106.45 to 215.23 points, respectively.
A comprehensive assessment of sows of different operational values was carried out according to the M. D. Berezovsky index:

І=В + (2 × W) + (35 × G)
(2) where B -is multifertility, goal; W is -the number of piglets at the time of weaning, goal; G is the average daily gain of piglets from birth to weaning, kg.
Biometric processing of the received data was carried out according to generally accepted methods (Kovalenko et al., 2010;Petrovska et al., 2022).
The strength of correlations between traits was determined according to the Chaddock scale (Sidorova et al., 2003) (Table 2).

Table 2
Chaddock's scale for grading the strength of the correlation between quantitative traits The value of the correlation coefficient Correlation strength 0.1-0.3Weak 0.3-0.5 Moderate 0.5-0.7 Moderate 0.7-0,9 High 0.9-0.99Very high

Results and discussion
It was established that the life expectancy of sows of the controlled population (n = 80) is 31.6 ± 0.67 months (Сv = 19.16%), the duration of breeding use is 23.8±0.70 months (Сv = 26.60 %).The index "exploitative value of the sow" is equal to 217.63 ± 7.02 points (Сv = 28.86 %), the index of Yu.D. Shatalina ranges from 12.34 to 94.62 points.
The results of studies of the reproductive qualities of sows of different operational values showed that the sows of the I experimental group prevailed over the animals of the II group in terms of life expectancy by 7.9 months (td = 7.67; Р < 0.001), the duration of breeding use -8.3 months (td = 7.61; P < 0.001) (Table 3).
The results of the calculation of the pairwise correlation coefficients between the absolute indicators of the reproductive qualities of sows and the index "exploitative value of the sow" (EVS) indicate a significant variability of this biometric indicator (+0.063 -+0.928) (Table 4).
The results of calculating the economic efficiency of using sows of different operational values indicate that the maximum increase in additional production was obtained from sows of the "high operational value" category (I experimental group) (+5.04 %) (Table 5).Very high Note: 1 -life expectancy, months; 2 -duration of tribal use, months; 3 -farrowing were obtained during the period of breeding use of everything; 4 -multifertility, goal; 5 -high fertility, kg; 6 -the weight of the nest at the time of weaning at the age of 28 days, kg; 7 -preservation, %; 8 -index of Berezovsky M. D.; * -P < 0.05; *** -P < 0.001 The value of additional products obtained from sows of the 1st experimental group equals UAH 259.63/ head/farrowing.

Conclusions
1.It was established that the sows of the controlled population are characterized by sufficiently high indicators of the level of adaptation (life expectancy, duration of breeding use) and reproductive qualities.Regarding fertility and litter weight at the time of weaning at 28 days, the sows of the controlled population belong to the elite class.
3. The number of reliable correlations between life expectancy, duration of breeding use, absolute indicators of reproductive qualities of sows, and the index "exploitative value of the sow" (EVS) is 75.0 %.
4. The criterion for selecting sows of high operational value for the controlled population is the value of the "EVS" index at 220.90 or more points.

Table 1
Scale for evaluating the operational value of sows

Table 3
Reproductive qualities of sows of different operational value

Table 4
Coefficients of pairwise correlations between lifespan, duration of breeding use, absolute indices of reproductive qualities of sows, and the index "exploitative value of the sow" (EVS)

Table 5
Economic efficiency of using sows of experimental groups * -the selling price of young pigs at the time of the research was 77.70 UAH per 1 kg of live weight