Myora Maternal Line

The Myora maternal line consists of two pure breeds; the Myora Landrace and the Myora Large White, both genetically selected to accentuate particular maternal breeding traits.

Myora’s maternal line has been described as one of the best dam lines in the world, this can be attributed to our meticulous attention to detail and devoted stockmanship, identifying our maternal traits whilst marrying this with our long-standing breeding values from over 25 years of production.

Maternal line breeding philosophy

Myora’s maternal breeding philosophy emphasizes fundamental maternal qualities; fertility, mothering ability and litter quality.

Fertility

Femininity is the pillar to Myora’s maternal line fertility and lifetime productivity. The associated traits form a fundamental part of Myora’s selection criteria combining both science and the art of breeding.

Myora instils a high degree of selection emphasis on structural correctness and functionality as it provides the framework and foundation for ensuring longevity and a high level of fertility across multiple parities.

Myora’s acute focus on sow appetite and improved feed intake supports the production of large prolific litters, whilst ensuring successful breeding post-weaning due to minimal body condition loss during lactation.

Litter Quality

Myora considers litter quality as an overarching category to capture the ability to genetically influence litter size, uniformity, and superiority of the piglets within every litter.

We value large uniform litters from our hyperprolific sows with healthy birthweights to promote vigour, robustness and vitality leading to increased survivability and ease of management. Litters that possess these traits not only provide the opportunity to maximise the number of piglets produced per sow, but also ensure every piglet has the ability to reach full commercial value.

Myora has genetically selected sows with an inherent capacity to consistently deliver high birthweight piglets and uniform litters. Myora’s three-breed program emphasizes the importance of maximising heterosis which strongly influences litter quality for commercial progeny.

Mothering Ability

The mothering ability of Myora’s maternal line is a fundamental breeding objective. We quantify this as developing our maternal line sows that have an ability to raise all their young, have high milk quality and quantity output and possess strong maternal nursing instinct towards their litter. These abilities result in increasing the survivability, the individual weight and the number of piglets produced by every sow.

Milk production, quality and volume, are fundamental for high piglet growth, piglet robustness, and survivability. Myora incorporates a selection index for 21 day litter weight for its maternal line, to quantify the sow’s ability to influence its litter size and growth rate and to capture this genetic ability as a selectable index.

Myora’s sow’s physical features such as udder capacity, teating and functionality, along with breed temperament, calmness and maternal instinct are essential strengths of our maternal lines.