Growth performance characteristics and economy of production of crossbred growing pigs fed sundried soybean milk residue

Abstract

Eighteen (18) growing pigs (Largewhite X Landrace) were used to investigate the nutritional value of sundried soybean milk residue (SSMR) as substitute for soyabean meal on growth performance characteristics and economy of production of the experimental animals. Three experimental diets were formulated by incorporating SSMR into basal diet to replace soyabean meal at 0, 5 and 10% designated as T1 (control), T2 and T5 respectively. The experimental pigs were individually weighed and allotted into three dietary treatments of three replicates of six animals each in a completely randomized design. The animals were fed for one week pre-experimental period and thereafter for eight weeks during which data were collected. The pigs were weighed weekly to determine weight gain and feed conversion ratio while linear body measurement parameters were measured using tape rule. The results revealed that the dietary treatments did not influenced (p>0.05) the growing pigs performance. Feed cost per kilogram live weight gain (27.50) of the animals fed 0% SSMR significantly (p<0.05) reduced to 26.61 (5%SSMR) and 25.65 (10% SSMR). It was concluded that feeding growing pigs with sundried soybean milk residue has no detrimental effect on the performance of pigs and led to the reductions in the cost/kg and cost of feed per kilogram live-weight gain with increasing levels of SSMR in the diets. It is hereby recommended that sundried soybean milk residue should be incorporated in the diet of growing pigs without any adverse effect on the growth performance of the pigs.