In recent years, the emphasis on reproductive performance in pigs has increased, although the favourable impact of improving reproductive performance on the overall efficiency of production has long been recognised. There is widespread agreement that increasing the number of pigs per sow per year should be a major objective of the pig industry, particularly as limits in fat reduction are approached. The 1994 British Society of Animal Science Braude Scholarship was used to investigate current research in the area of swine reproduction and identify particular areas of concern as perceived by the North American pig industry. The main objectives of the scholarship were to (1) present a paper at the Fifth World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (2) visit research establishments in the USA to discuss current research projects in pigs, with particular emphasis on genetic variation in reproduction traits and (3) visit major pig breeding companies in the USA to discuss the application of research results in modern pig breeding programmes and the required future research.