Abstract—Thirty-six male hybrid (Landrace x Large white) weaned pigs aged 56 days were used to determine the performance of growing pigs fed raw pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) seed meal (PSM) diets in the humid tropics. The experimental design was Completely Randomized Design (CRD). There were four treatment diets formulated with raw PSM included at 0, 20, 25 and 30% level. Each treatment was replicated three times with three pigs per replicate. Parameters measured were weight gain, final live weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost-benefit. The experiments last 120 days. Results showed that raw PSM replaced 71.14 and 74.47% maize and soybean meal, respectively in a growing pig diet. Raw PSM diets significantly (P<0.05) improved final live weight, daily live weight gain, Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) and Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER). The conclusion was that growing pigs could be fed up to 30% raw PSM in the diet to ensure better performance and reduce total feed cost, feed cost per kg live weight gain and improved the gross margin. The control (0% PSM) diet gave a negative (-N143.10) gross margin.
 

Index Terms—diets, growing pigs, performance, pigeon pea seed meal, humid tropics

Cite: Kevin U. Amaefule, Sylvester N. Ibe, Udo Herbert, and Michael C. Ugwuene, "Performance of Growing Pigs Fed Raw Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan (l.) Millsp.) Seed Meal Diets in the Humid Tropics," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 99-103, June 2016. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.3.2.99-103