Effect of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) leaf + stem silage and mulberry leaf silage on digestibility and N retention of growing pigs fed a basal diet of rice bran

摘要

Threecrossbredcastratedmalepigs,weighingonaverage24kgwereallottedatrandomto3dietswithina3*3Latinsquare,tostudytheeffectofTaro(Colocasiaesculenta)silage(leaves+stems)andmulberryleafsilage,ora50:50combinationofbothfoliages,ondigestibilityandNretentionofgrowingpigsfedabasaldietofricebran.Thericebranwasrestrictedat1%ofbodyweight(DMbasis)whilethesilageswerefedadlibitum.Dietswith67%ofmulberryleafsilageplus33%ricebranand74%Taro(leaf+stem)silagewith26%ricebran(DMbasis)supportedrelativelyhighratesoffeedintake(30and39gDM/kgLW/day).Themixedsilage(50:50asDMofeachforage)wasconsumedat36g/kgLW/day.ApparentdigestibilitycoefficientsforDM,crudeprotein,NDFandADFwerehigherfordietscontainingTarosilagecomparedwithmulberrysilagealone,withnodifferencebetween50%Mulberry-50%Tarosilageand100%Tarosilage.NretentionwhencorrectedforNintakedidnotdifferamongdiets.ItisconcludedthattheproteininTarofoliage(leaves+stems)ismoredigestiblethantheproteininmulberryleavesbutthatthebiologicalvalueoftheproteinissimilarforbothfoliages.