Ballymanus Farms Producing 30 pigs Born Alive per Sow per Year

Three years ago, the Ballymanus Unit was operating a Rotational Cross Breeding Programme and achieving an average of 11.6 born alive. A decision was then taken to operate a 'Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP Programme' and purchase 300 purebred Landrace sows. These sows have been producing prolific F1 parent gilts for the past two years. For the last 6 month period, the born alive on the unit has passed an average of 13 per litter. The average born alive for June 2008 was 13.33 on over 400 litters. The F1 parent females are mated with Maxgro Semen to produce the salughter generation and piglet viability and growth rates have been excellent. Congratulations to Brian Keirnan J.J. and all the staff on this excellent performance.