Economic Values for the Australian Pig Industry

Abstract

Genetic improvement of livestock has to consider a number of traits and is often based on an economic index. The economic index is the sum of the estimated breeding values for traits in the breeding objective weighted by their economic values. The economic value of a trait is the change in profit per unit change in the trait. For example, the economic value of growth rate reflects the lower on-farm costs resulting from reaching a target slaughter weight in fewer days. Economic values of traits depend on management and payment systems, and should be derived for the system of interest. The aim of this study was the estimation of economic values for a typical Australian situation.