I sold showpigs to 4-H and FFA students this past week. Showing swine is near and dear to me as I probably wouldn’t be farming today if it weren’t for showing swine. Striving to improve on my placing at the Lafayette County Fair caused me to begin my life-long study of genetics and improvement of livestock through selection. Check out “How I Became a Swine Seedstock Supplier.”
Our swine show is an excellent learning opportunity. Showpigs are weighed and identified in April. The maximum weight was 88 lbs. on Saturday.
The students then have the responsibility of caring for the swine until the show in July. After the show, each student is allowed to sell one showpig in the livestock auction. Local businesses support the students by purchasing a pig or other species of livestock. Prices are usually above market price so the students are almost guaranteed to make money on their livestock project. Students are also required to keep production and financial records on their livestock project. Students learn responsibility, accounting, and marketing skills all in one fun project.
Not everyone is successful, however. There is a minimum weight, (220 lbs.), to sell in the livestock auction. This requires an average daily gain of about 1.5 lbs per day, (170 lbs. of gain in 113 days). This is not difficult to accomplish with today’s swine. However, to achieve this average daily gain, a pig needs clean feed and water, shelter, shade, and a way to cool off, (sprinkler or wallow), when it gets hot. If a student fails to provide these ingredients every day, he/she may find his/her pig is too light to sell at the auction. Another great learning experience.
One family had never purchased from me before. I helped them deliberate whether a smaller pig, (46 lbs.), would be big enough by fair-time. They asked me how well my pigs gain weight. I told them average because I was more interested in what their pigs have weighed at the fair in the past. I asked this because it’s been my experience that families tend to have similar experiences from year to year even though the pigs are different. Some families always bring 300 lb. pigs to the fair. Other families always struggle to make the minimum weight.
This is easily explained because average daily gain is only moderately heritable. Heritability is expressed from 0 to 1 with 0 being not heritable and 1 being completely heritable. Average daily gain in swine is about .3. This means that 30% of the variation in average daily gain is due to genetics.
What causes the other 70%? Environment! That explains why the people managing the pigs are a much greater factor than the genetics of the pigs.
The family decided to take the smaller showpig. I will let you know how they did after the fair in July.
What are you blaming genetics for? Could your environment be a greater factor?
Curiousfarmer 
Reminds me of “my fair Lady” or the movie “trading places”.
Environment plays the bigger role.
As Zig Ziglar says “something else may have had a hand in where you are at right now, but where you go from here is entirely up to you.”