Abstract
A study of reproductive performance of 500 smallholder swine herds in some parts of northern Nigeria was conducted for a period of 24 months. The selected herds were visited regularly on a monthly basis to study the reproductive performance of pigs kept under traditional systems of management. Litter size at birth and at weaning were 8.1 and 6.6, respectively. The annual reproductive rate per sow per year at birth was 10.7. Age at first litter and age of boar at first mating for smallholder farms were 15.0 months and 11.5 months, respectively. The average farrowing interval was 7.5 months with 86.3% of the farrowings having intervals between 5 months and 8 months. The shortest farrowing interval was 5 months and this accounted for 9.3%, while long farrowing intervals of 9-11 months accounted for 13.7%. In the dry season (November-April) there were more conceptions than the rainy season (May-October).
