Abstract

Adesehinwa, A. O. K. Swine

A sound nutrition programme, which allows the understanding of the interaction between nutrients and requirements for different levels of production, is essential for raising swine profitably. Nutrient requirement is that amount of each essential nutrient that will result in maximum production with a minimum of feeding. Hence, high quality feeds containing the essential nutrients in the amounts necessary to meet the animal’s requirements must be provided, in order to attain an optimal rate and efficiency of growth from birth to market. The formulation of balanced diets that provide the correct amounts and proportions of these nutrients is essential to support the requirements for maintenance, growth and reproduction of the animal. It is only then that the feeding programme can be said to have a major impact on the performance and the overall profitability of the swine herd. The scarcity of conventional feeds has hindered the growth and development of the livestock industry in Nigeria. The general shortage of energy and protein feeds appear to be more severe for non-ruminants that depend to a great extent on compounded feeds, especially pigs, which are bulk feeders. There are a number of agro-industrial by-products, farm waste or crop residues that have been exploited as alternative feed sources for the high energy cereals. This has made a substantial contribution towards better and more economic feeding of non-ruminants. However, fibrousness, a feature of most locally available agro-industrial by-products and wastes has limited their use.