Evaluation of the Use of Molasses in diets for growing and fattening pigs

Abstract

In swine production, feed represents 70 to 80% of the total cost. In the tropics, the production of corn and soybean, the main ingredients in the swine’s diet, is very low. This is a disadvantage compared with farmers in the United States, where there are alternatives to replace these ingredients with other sources of feed like potato, cassava, sweet potato, sugar cane, molasses and other by-products of the agro industry. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of four levels of molasses in the growing and finishing diets of pigs. The study was conducted between January and May, 2005, in the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, Zamorano, Honduras. A total of 120 pigs were allotted to four treatment groups averaging 27 kg initial weight for the growing period, and 48 kg for the finishing diet. The pigs were crossbred of Landrace, Yorkshire, Duroc and PIC hybrids. The treatments were 0, 10, 20 or 30% of molasses in the diets. The experimental design was a Completely Randomize Design, with four treatments and three replicates. An Analysis of Variances was used with the General Lineal Model (GLM), with a 0.05 significance level. The pigs with 0% of molasses had a better average daily gain (ADG) (781 g/day) than pigs fed with the other diets. There was no difference between treatments for feed intake or the feed conversion ratio in the growing phase. There were no differences (P>0.05) for the variables in the finishing phase. Our results indicate that it is possible to feed pigs with up to 30% of molasses in the diet. The feed costs can be reduced 30% and 24% for the growing and finishing diets, respectively. However, the best margin over feed cost was for the diet with 20% molasses.

Key words: Animal performance; backfat; carcass weight; loin area.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/ceiba.v47i1-2.441

Ceiba, 2006. Volumen 47(1-2):3-9