Hand-Mating Pigs on Small- and Medium-sized Pork Operations (Design and Management Principles)

During 2006, the USDA's National Health Monitoring System conducted a survey in 17 states. These states accounted for 94 percent of swine operations with an inventory of 100 or more pigs. The survey gathered information about the type of mating technique used on the site. Artificial insemination was the predominate method of mating sows during first, second, and third matings (Table 1). Individual hand-mating with a boar or pen-mating with multiple females appear to be used on few sows during any mating. For swine enterprises that used hand-mating on the first mating, the second mating was accomplished by hand-mating on 11.2 percent of the farms, by artificial insemination on 2.1 percent of the farms, or by pen-mating on 1.1 percent of the farms (Table 2).