Growth performance and economy of production of grower pigs fed maize- cob-meal-based diets

Abstract

Twenty-four landrace x large white grower pigs were used to study the effect of maize-cob- meal-based diets on the growth performance and economy of production of grower pigs. The pigs were divided into four groups of six pigs each and further sub-divided into three replicates of two pigs each and assigned to four formulated treatment diets containing 0, 10, 20 and 30% maize cob-meal-based diets. The pigs were assigned to their respective diets in a completely randomized design experiment. The result showed that daily weight gain of the pigs were similar (p>0.05) between treatments, while daily feed intake of the pigs on control diet
differed significantly (p<0.5) from the other treatment groups. Feed conversion ratio showed no significant difference (p>0.05) among treatments and production at the 20% maize-cob-meal- diet inclusion level gave the highest profit, showing that it is more economical and beneficial to include maize-cob-meal at 20% of the whole diet.

Keywords: Growth- Performance, Landrace, large white, grower pigs, maize-cob meal