ABSTRACT

 An experiment to determine the relative preference and the effect of ensuing on the physical properties and chemical properties of various silage types by pigs was carried out between September and October 2008. Guinea grass, centosema and cassava peels were ensued alone, a mixture of centosema and cassava peels; guinea grass and centro; guinea grass, centro and cassava peels; guinea grass, centro, cassava peels and poultry manure were ensiled also using a plastic container lined with polythene sheets. The experiment was a completely randomized design with three replicates for each of the silage types. The results of the experiment shows that the different ensiled materials varied in both physical and chemical properties. It was concluded that cassava peels was preferred by the pigs. The dry matter content for treatment 7 was the highest compared to other silage types. The ash content of the silage types ranged from 10.48 to 3.32% for treatment 3 and 7 respectively. Cassava peel silage differed significantly (P<0.05) from other treatments in its ash content with a value of 1O.49%. The experiment show that ash, crude protein and EE were important determinant of preference of silages by pigs. A one week preference study of seven silage type was conducted using the cafeteria system in a completely randomized design. Eight pigs housed individually in pens were involved. The result showed significant differences (P><0.05) in dry matter intake (DM1) among the sulage types in the following ranking; cassava peel> Grass cassava peel legume> Grass cassava peel legume poultry manure> Legume cassava peel> Legume> Grass legume> grass.