Features of keeping and raising male pigs in livestock farming

In pig farming, the bulk of males are intended for meat production. From birth until reaching market weight, their path differs from that of females due to behavioral traits and meat characteristics. A key procedure for young piglets is castration, which is carried out in the first week of life without anesthesia by surgical removal of the testes or by applying a tight rubber ring to the scrotum. Subsequently, castrated males (barrows) are housed together with gilts, receiving specialized feeding to stimulate muscle growth, as well as necessary housing conditions and veterinary care.

A small percentage of genetically valuable males are selected for reproduction based on criteria such as growth rate, lean meat content, and reproductive performance. Such boars are housed separately. Artificial insemination is also used to improve the gene pool. In practice, abandoning castration can lead to an unpleasant odor and taste in the meat (the so-called "boar taint" caused by the accumulation of androstenone and skatole in the fat), which leads to economic losses, although breeding methods, high-fiber diets, and alternative research (including immunocastration) aim to solve this problem.

Housing conditions can vary: on small farms, more individual attention to each livestock animal is possible, whereas large complexes focus on efficiency and standard procedures. Animal health is also affected by factors such as climate change, requiring the adaptation of cooling systems and biosecurity, as well as common respiratory and enteric diseases, and lameness.