The Composition, Nutrient Digestibility and Energy Value of Maize Cobs, Yam Peels and Plantain Peels for Three Weight Groups of Pigs

Abstract

THE proximate and mineral composition of yellow maize (YM), maize cobs (MC), yam peels (YP) and plantain peels (PP) were determined. Their digestion coefficients for dry matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), crude fibre (CF) and nitrogen-free extract (NFE) were determined with 48 pigs at 18, 45 and 65 kg liveweight. In a second trial 60 pigs of similar weights were used to determine the digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME) and nitrogen corrected ME (ME) for a basal diet and these feeds in diets in which 40; by weight of the test ingredients were added to the basal diet. The digestion coefficents of DM, CP, CF and EE for YM (92.0, 86.0, 76.7 and 88.6% respectively) were significantly better than the values of 83.4, 54.2, 71.7 and 38.4 and 79.5, 57.7, 70.2 and 55.7{ observed for YP and PP respectively. MC had significantly the least digestion coefficients for these nutrients (27.9, -18.5, 51.7 and 17.1%). The 18 kg pigs digested DM and CF to a lesser extent than the 45 or 65 kg pigs. There were no significant differences in CP, EE and NFE digestibility between weight groups. The DE and ME values of 3.14 and 2.98 and 3.15 and 2.94 kcals/g for YP and PP respectively were identical but significantly lower than the values of 4.0 and 3.68 for YM, MC had significantly the least DE, ME and ME% values. The ME values of 3.49, 2.95 and 2.94 kcal/g for YM, YP and PP were not significantly different, There were no significant differences in DE, ME or ME between the weight groups.