Tropical legumes hays as substitutes for alfalfa for growing pigs

Abstract

Three tropical legumes Centrossema pubescens, Pueraria javanica and Phaseolus atropurpureus were compared with alfalfa (Medicago sativa) in rations for growing pigs. Four treatments, with four replications per treatment and two animals per replication, were studied in a complete randomized block design. The experiment lasted for 70 days. Each treatment had one of the four legume hays as one of its components. The hay composed 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0% of the rations for pigs of 20-40, 40-60 kg liveweight, respectively. The respective crude protein content of the rations were 18, 16 and 14% for pigs of the three weight groups. No significant differences were found among treatment for liveweight gain, feed intake or feed conversion.