Author(s)

Katharina Renner-Martin¹, Manfred Kühleitner¹, Norbert Brunner¹, Werner Hagmüller²

¹Institute of Mathematics, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
²Institute of Organic Farming and Farm Animal Biodiversity, Agricultural Research and Education Centre (AREC), Thalheim/Wels, Austria.

The selection and comparison of different growth models for describing weight gain of piglets raised in organic farming is investigated by using the Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC). In total, 49,699 data points of 5188 piglets recorded between 2007 and 2013 were considered. From the day of birth, up to 40 days (i.e. until weaning) the model of von Bertalanffy was favored by the AIC. This model is with 60.32% more likely to truly reflect reality than any other of the analyzed models. Up to 105 days, the two-linear model was favored by the AIC (probability 99.75%). The intersection point of the two-linear model was calculated by 53.8 days, which fitted well to the actual change in the food situations.

AIC, Growth Curve, Growth Model, Weight Gain, Piglet, Organic Farming

Renner-Martin, K. , Kühleitner, M. , Brunner, N. and Hagmüller, W. (2016) AIC-Based Selection of Growth Models: The Case of Piglets from Organic Farming. Open Journal of Modelling and Simulation, 4, 17-23. doi: 10.4236/ojmsi.2016.42002.