PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMY OF PRODUCTION OF GROWING PIGS FED WHOLE CASSAVA PLANT BASED DIETS WITH VARYING LEVELS OF PALM KERNEL CAKE AND CASSAVA PEELS IN THE HUMID TROPICS

Abstract

Eighteen Large White + Hampshire growing pigs with initial mean weight of 16.+0.21kg were used to determine the effects of whole cassava plant based diet with varying levels of palm kernel cake and cassava peel on performance and economy of pigs. Six diets were formulated to contain six levels of crude protein (ranging from 16.45-20.07%), 2 levels of palm kernel cake (0, 20%) and 3 levels of cassava peels (0, 10, and 20%). Cassava leaves plus tender stems were used at 255 in all diets. The experiment which lasted twelve weeks revealed no significant differences (p>0.05) for growth performance and feed conversion ratio (FCR) among treatments. The inclusion of palm kernel cake (PKC) and cassava peels together or separately in the diets resulted in better performance though insignificantly (p>0.05) compared to the control which has neither palm kernel cake nor cassava peels, even at level as high as 20% for both palm kernel cake and cassava peels respectively.