Performance of growing pigs fed pre-digested maizecobs and molasses (mcmolas) meal as a partial replacement for maize

Abstract

Availability of good quality feed at affordable price remains the major problem facing livestock producers, including pig rearing. This prompted this study to investigate the performance of growing pigs fed pre-digested MCMOLAS (Maize cobs + Molasses) meal as a partial replacement of maize and the study was carried out in two phases, Phase I involved the preparation of the MCMOLAS meal where 4 parts of milled maize cobs was mixed with 1 part by weight of molasses which was pre-digested with enzyme (Kenzyme) at 0.5g/1kg for 7days, sundried and stored for the feeding trial. Proximate composition of the MCMOLAS concentrate was determined before its introduction into growing pig diets. At phase II, four dietary treatments were formulated with MCMOLAS replacing 0%, 15%, 30% and 45% of maize in growing pig diets. Sixteen (16) growing pigs whose weight were in the range of 8.12kg - 8.62kg were randomly allocated to each dietary treatments replicated four (4) times with one (1) pig/replicate. The feeding trial was carried out at the University of Benin Teaching and Research Farm for the duration of eighty-four (84) days. Performance of the growing pigs were taken in the course of the experiment.  Growth performance showed that the feed intake and weight gain by pigs were significantly affected (P<0.05), the lowest average daily feed intake (1.28kg) was recorded among pigs fed 45% MCMOLAS meal. Although, the highest body weight gain was recorded among growing pigs fed 0% MCMOLAS meal, concurrently, the gains were similar to those fed 15% MCMOLAS meal. The Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) showed no significant difference (P>0.05) across the dietary treatments. The eviscerated weight, heart, kidney, lungs, stomach, small intestine showed no significant difference across the whole treatments (P>0.05) as they increased along with increased MCMOLAS level in the diet. The retail cuts of pork all showed no significant difference across all the treatments. It can be concluded that MCMOLAS can be safely used in replacement of maize at 15% inclusion level in the diets of growing pigs without compromising their health, weight gain, growth performance and carcass characteristics.