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Livestock-Based Farming Systems, Renewable Resources and the Environment |
The experiment was conducted at the Center for Livestock and Agriculture Development (CelAgrid). Four exotic crossbred (Large White x Landrace) castrate male pigs weighing on average 30.3kg (SD=1.32) were allotted at random to four diets to study replacing rice bran by mixture taro (Colocasia esculenta) foliage and banana stem on intake and nutrient digestibility of crossbred pigs. The level of rice bran was 10, 20, 30 and 40% in the diet (DM basis) and the remaining was taro foliage ensiled with banana stem. The taro foliage (leaves and stems) and banana stem were chopped by hand in small pieces (about 2-3cm) and wilted one day in order to reduce the moisture content in both foliages before making the silage in proportion of 50:50 in DM basis without adding any other ingredient and stored for a month before feeding to the pigs. The design was a 4*4 Latin square with each period of 12 days.
Total DM intake, intake g/kg live weight, OM intake and CF intake were not significant different as level of rice bran (P>0.05) but the CP intake decreased with increasing replacement of rice bran (P<0.05). DM and CF content of faeces of pig was increased as level of rice bran (P<0.001) but OM and N content which was high on low level of rice bran (P<0.001). Digestibility of OM, N and CF were decreased as increased level of rice bran (P<0.005) but DM digestibility was tendency high on low level of rice bran (P=0.121). N intake was high at treatment of RB10% compared with other treatments (P<0.05). In term of N excretion in faeces was decreased with increase level of rice bran (P<0.005) but N excretion in urine was not significant different among level of rice bran (P>0.05). In total excretion showed that RB10 and RB40 were low in total excretion (P<0.001). N retention and retention as percentage of N intake were high on RB10 and 40 (P<0.05) but not different on RB20 and 30. It is concluded that feed intake was not effect by replacing of rice bran but nutrients digestibility and N retention of pigs decreased by replacing rice bran by mixture taro foliage and banana stem.
Key words: taro foliage, banana stem, rice bran, intake, digestibility