British Landrace (BL) is used widely as a dam breed in producing crossbred sows for commercial pig production in Zimbabwe. This study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of BL under current level of management in Zimbabwe and to make recommendation for improvement of productivity.

The records for this study were obtained from a nucleus/multiplier farm. The data included 720 litters from BL sows over the five year period 1983 - 1987. The reproductive traits analysed, number born alive (NBA), number weaned (NW), total litter weight at birth (TLWB) kg, at weaning (TLWW), age at first litter (AFL) days, days weaning to effective service (DWES) and farrowing interval (FI) days, were from both pure and crossbred matings. The performance data, daily gain (DG) and food conversion ratio (FCR) between 35 - 86 kg and k backfat thickness (BF) at 86 kg, were from 620 performance tested BL pigs. The data were analysed by least-squares procedures. The fixed effect included in the analysis of reproductive traits were the sire breed of the litter, the dam parity and the year and season of birth of litter. The effects considered for the performance data were the year and season of performance test and the sex. The season according to month of birth of litter, farrowing, rebreedlng or performance test was classified as cold (April - July), dry (August - November) or rainy (December - March). For all the traits, typical model included the above fixed effects and two-way Interactions.