Efficiency of breeding of Danish pigs in Russia

Pig breeding is a modern promising industry capable of ensuring food security of Russia. However, many domestic breeds do not have good productive qualities. This is due to the fact that many pig breeds were bred in a short period of time from 1935 to 1957 in Russia. To solve the problem of improving meat quality, introduced pig breeds have become widely used recently. The article presents the results of the evaluation of Danish Landrace and Yorkshire breeds that have been introduced to the Kaluga Region. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative indicators of the Landrace breed showed that there was an increase in the number of livestock in the breed, the number of repair pigs, the average daily gain increased to 965 grams; in Yorkshire breed, there was also an increase in the number of repair pigs, nest weight in 30 days, the average daily gain was 888-900 grams. Despite approximately the same economic efficiency of breeding, the correlations of breeding traits in these breeds differed, which indicates a different genetic basis of the breeds, as well as the effectiveness of selection in the near future and the need for different selection indices in these breeds. In pigs of the landras breed, high heritability had feed expenses per 1 kg gain (r = + 0.388, h2 = 0.776), and in Yorkshire pigs, high heritability differed in lard thickness over 6-7 thoracic vertebrae (mm) - h2 = 0.656. Yorkshire pigs had a high prolificacy (an average of 17.6 piglets per farrow). Profitability of production at the same time on average was in different years from 25 to 37% (31% in 2018). In general, the breeding of Danish breeds Landrace and Yorkshire should be considered promising in the pig breeding complexes of Russia.