COMPARATIVE EVALUATION THE GROWTH RESPONSE OF GROWER PIGS FED DIETS CONTAINING SOYBEAN, GROUNDNUTS AND SUNFLOWER

Abstract

The study investigates the response of grower pigs to diets containing different sources of protein specifically, soya cake, sunflower meal and groundnut cake. A total of Nine (9) grower pigs of average weight of and age were used for the study and were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments, with each group receiving a diet containing one of the protein sources. Parameters such as initial weight and final weight, daily weight gain, and feed intake were evaluated over a period of four weeks. The results showed that pigs fed with sunflower based diet had better final weight compared  to those fed Soybean meal (14.33 and 13.00kg/head), however, average weight gain was significantly lower (5.5kg/head) for the pigs fed groundnut based diet when compared with the pigs fed diets containing Soybean  and sunflower (7.50 and 7.17kg)respectively. Although, the diets were found to be nutritionally adequate for the growth of the pigs. However, the pig’s sunflower-based diet had better feed conversion ratio and also diet containing sunflower meal had least cost (N) per kg.  In conclusion, sunflower meal could be used to replace Soybean meal and groundnut cake in the diets of grower pigs. These findings can be valuable for pig Farmers and Researchers looking to optimize the growth performance of their pigs through dietary choices.