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Technology package SWEET POTATO SILAGE FOR FEEDING PIGS
Summary Sweet potato is an important crop for humans and domesticated livestock, particularly pigs. Providing consistent, nutritious feed is a challenge for all livestock systems. Feed conservation is a major constraint to productivity of village smallholder farmers in PNG, since till now there has been no means of storing perishable starchy feeds like sweet potato, for longer term after the lush season. NARI Livestock Research Project has released the adapted technique of ensiling a mixture of sweet potato tuber and vine, a technique enabling feed nutrients to be stored as a preserved (fermented) feed for up to seven months. The silage can then be mixed with other feeds containing more protein and can then be fed as a highly palatable and nutritious feed to all classes of pigs.
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SP silage Whole sweet potato tuber and vine biomass are utilized fresh from the garden, or tuber can be bought from local markets. The forage is locally available and material from garden waste can be put to better use; the tools and materials were also obtained locally. Any sweet potato plant can be ensiled. The basic requirements for proper ensiling of sweet potato are: (1) harvesting forage at the right maturity, (2) chopping tuber and vine into small pieces, (3) mixing in salt additive at 0.5% of the total mixture weight, (4) rapid packing of the mixture into airtight bags, (5) ensuring material is firmly compacted and sealing off the bags within a silo. Adaptation and testing of the ensiling sweet potato technique has demonstrated that: • Sweet potato tuber and vine forage was processed by hand tools or using a mechanical chopper • Sweet potato silage was well fermented and stored in acidic conditions at pH 4.0 for up to seven months continuously • One additive for aiding good fermentation was ordinary table salt • Feed nutrients in the sweet potato were not affected by ensiling • Ensiling saves on fuel wood, cooking water and reduces daily labour • Exotic and local crossbred pigs performed comparably well on mixed sweet potato silage and commercial grower rations in feed trials conducted experimentally, on-station and on-farm • Sweet potato silage stored well for several weeks while being fed to growing pigs through to finish weights of 60 kilograms • Nearly two tonnes of silage was prepared by this technique, tested on 28 pigs which were sold to commercial outlets or as live pigs • Mixed tuber and vine at 50/50 and 60/40 tuber to vine ratio were adequate to provide nutrients for growing pigs to perform at economically acceptable levels – palatability and digestibility were adequate for normal growth. The technique may prove effective for storing other starchy crops such as cassava and taro For details, refer to Guidelines for Making and storing Sweet Potato Silage for Feeding Pigs or NARI Toktok of the same name at all NARI Regional Centre Libraries.
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