Relationship of Some Semen Characteristics of the Boar to Fecundity of the Sow

As the price-cost squeeze be comes more critical to the pork producer, every fact or which affects net profit must be critically weighed. The profit making potential of a swine herd increases directly with an increase in the number of live offspring produced per sow. The production of large litters is dependent on high fertility in both the sow and the boar. The fertility of boars will vary from complete sterility to high fertility . An actual breeding test is the only highly reliable method of those used to measure fertility level in the boar, but boars of complete sterility can usually be detected by semen testing. Since an actual breeding test is a very expensive method of determining the fertility level of a boar, it would be highly desirable to develop a rapid inexpensive method for determining the fertility level o f boars so that boars of low to moderate fertility could be eliminated from the herd be fore use. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between certain measures of semen quality in the boar and fecundity in the sow and to measure the variation among boars with respect to these measures of semen quality