Abstract
The grasscutter (Thryonomysswinderianus) holdspromise as a source of increased protein for populations of Sub-Sahara African countries. It is inexpensive to feed and features the feed utilization characteristics of ruminants and monogastrics. It is nocturnal in its activities, especially feeding. This experimentwas carried out to determine the effect of daylight hours or photoperiod on growing grasscutters under intensive rearing conditions. The effect of daylight hours on growing grasscutters was determined using sixteen 8-months old femalegrasscutters. Thegrasscutters were separated into four groups and allotted to four  treatments of varying daylight hours. The treatments included; zero (0) hours of daylight and twenty four (24) hours (6.00 am-6.00 am) of darkness (0L:24D), six antemeridiem (am) hours (6.00 am-12.00 noon) of daylight and eighteen (18) hours (12.00 noon-6.00 am) of darkness(6L(am):18D), six post-meridiem (pm) hours (12.00 noon-6.00 pm) of daylight and eighteen (18) hours (6.00 pm-12.00 noon) of darkness (6L(pm):18D) and twelve (12) hours (6.00 am-6.00 pm) of daylight and twelve (12) hours (6.00pm- 6.00am) of darkness (12L:12D).Allgrasscutters were fedadiet containing 2200kilocalories metabolizable energy perkilogram (KcalME/kg) and crude protein (CP) level of 20%. Cassava root meal and wheat offalwere the main sources of energy, while soybean meal was the main source of protein in the diets. Elephant grass was fed as basal diet.The results showed thatforage, concentrate (diet) and total feed intake, and daily weight gain were significantly (P<0.05) higher under the 6 post-meridiem hours of daylight and 18 hours of darkness (6L(pm):18D) than under other conditions. It was, therefore, concluded that the optimum daylight conditions required for the rearing of growing grasscuttersare the six (6) hours of post-meridiem daylight, followed by eighteen (18) hours of darkness.
Highlights
The farming of grasscutter offers promiseof less expensive intervention, in the supply of animal protein in thediets of the populations of the countries of SubSahara Africa, than is possible with conventional livestock
Forage intake: The resultsindicate that forage intake was significantly (P
The results of this study indicate that concentrate intake was significantly (P
Summary
The farming of grasscutter offers promiseof less expensive intervention, in the supply of animal protein in thediets of the populations of the countries of SubSahara Africa, than is possible with conventional livestock. The challenge of protein deficiency can be mitigated by the farming of unconventional livestock such as the grasscutter. The grasscutter is an efficient converter of almost any form of roughage (Pich and Peters, 1985) because of its specialized digestive system (Emmons, 1987). This makes it an important animal in the drive to produce animal protein using less expensive feedstuffs. Fibreand simple nitrogen compounds are converted to volatile fatty acids (Michalet-Doreau, 2002) and microbial cells, which serve as precursors for much of the metabolizable energy (Kristensen 2005) and other chemical components of the body
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