Author: Bienvenu K

Voluntary feed intake of tropical forage legumes hays by growing pig in Western Democratic Republic of Congo

Bienvenu Kambashi1,2, Christelle Boudry1,, Pascale Picron1,, Honoré Kiatoko2, André Théwis1,, Jérôme Bindelle1,
2Université de Kinshasa, Faculté d’Agronomie, Kinshasa, R.D.Congo
1University of Liege, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Animal Science Unit, Gembloux, Belgium (jerome.bindelle@ulg.ac.be)

1. Introduction
Rearing pigs in developing countries improves the livelihood and nutritional security of smallholders. It is one of the main sources of cash income of resource-poor farmers.
Poor farmer can not afford concentrate feeds.
Dietary forage legumes can improve the economics of pig producers in the Tropics.
Adding forages requires incorporation levels maintaining the animal’s voluntary feed intake (VFI) since forages reduce the energy density of the diet, thus influencing growth.

Sun-drying

Feeding

2.3. Statistical analyses
MIXED procedure and Linear and Quadratic polynomial contrasts of the SAS 9.02 software were used to determine the effects of increasing dietary concentration of forages.
The model included the effects of the forages’ species as a class variable, the concentration of forages as a continuous variable (0.10, 0.20 and 0.40) and the interaction.

harvesting
transport

Mixed

2.Materials & Methods
Vigna unguiculata, Psophocarpus scandens, Pueraria javanica and Stylosanthes guianensis were harvested and sun-dried and ground.
12 groups of 2 pigs were provided ad libitum one of the 13 diets: a corn-soybean meal based diet containing 0, 10, 20 or 40% of one of the previous legume hays.
The experiment was repeated 3 times.
After 10 days, voluntary intake was measured for 5 days.

3. Results
No difference in voluntary feed intake was observed between species (P>0.20).
Polynomial contrasts revealed a linear response to forage level (P<0.05) decreasing from 134 for the control to approx 84 g/kg0.75 for 40% forage diets except for V. unguiculata where a quadratic trend was observed (P=0.07).
The difference in voluntary feed intake appears to be low between 10% and 20% and much higher between 20% and 40% forage diet.

Name	Dry matter	Crude protein	Ether Extract	Ash	NDF	Crude / energy
Psophocarpus scandens	15	33	3,7	9,7	32	4630
Pueraria phaseoloides	23	22	4,0	6,5	49	5081
Stylosanthes guianensis	26	21	5,5	8,7	38	4404
Vigna unguiculata	12	28	6,7	16	21	4364

Table 1. Composition of forages tested (% DM; except Crude energy: kcal/kg DM)

4. Recommendations
The 4 forage species included at < 20 % don’t reduce VFI signicantly. 20% forages incorporation in pig diet seems to be the limit before a negative effect on VFI occurs.
Nevertheless, to discriminate forage species, pig performances and nutritive value of diets must be assessed.

This work was supported by Wallonie-Bruxelles International (Brussels, BE), CAVTK Project