ABSTRACT
The desire to widen the limited variety of feed ingredients pig producers can access, has instigated the search on the use of unconventional and low cost feedstuffs, which are high in fibre and in abundance. One major cereal by-product grown around the world is maize cobs, which can be processed into pig’s feed.
This research was designed to investigate the performance and haematological indices of growing pigs fed pre-digested MCMOLAS (Maize cobs + Molasses) meal, this research was carried out in two phases. Phase I involved the preparation of the MCMOLAS concentrate where 4 parts of milled maize cobs was mixed with 1 part by weight of molasses and then 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 pigs diets. During phase II, four dietary treatments was formulated with MCMOLAS replacing 0%, 15%, 30% and 45% of maize in growing pigs 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 in the University of Benin Teaching and Research Farm. The performance and haematological indices of the growing pigs were taken in the course of the experiment.
Analysis of MCMOLAS meal showed that it contained a CP of 3.69±0.10, CF of 19.80±0.10, EE of 1.00±0.10, ASH of 1.57±0.06, NFE of 63.84±0.30, P of 776.7±13.2, K of 2.40±0.06, Ca of 8.41±0.02, Mg of 97.51±0.09, Na of 31.07±0.59 and Fe of 217.77±0.68, thereby making it a suitable energy concentrate. Performance indicated showed that the feed intake and weight gain by pigs were significantly affected (P<0.05) where the lowest 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, the gains were similar to those fed 15% MCMOLAS meal. The economy of pig production was also studied by relating it to the weight gain of the growing pigs. The FCR showed no significant difference (P>0.05) across the dietary treatments. The blood glucose for treatment 4 was the lowest (50.7mg/dl) compared to the control whereas the control recorded the highest value of 175.7mg/dl. 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 body cuts of animals in the control all showed no significant difference across all the treatments.
From this study it can be concluded that MCMOLAS can be safely used for replacement of maize at 15% inclusion level in the diets of growing pigs without compromising health, growth performance, carcass, characteristics and haematological parameter.
