Feeding Practices for Growing Pigs in Nagaland

A study was conducted to investigate the feeding practices and nutritional gap in growing pigs selected from villages Viswema, Tuli, Doyapur, Longsachung and Kashanya under the districts of Kohima, Mokokchung, Dimapur, Wokha and Mon, respectively. Body weight, age and feed intake were recorded for individual animal. The observations were recorded from 15 farmers from each of 5 villages. The average CP content of the mixed feed was in the range of 11.80–13.58%. The calculated ME value of the feed ranged from 2.50 to 2.85 Mcal/kg DM. The CP deficit was in the range of 17.7 to 26.5% and the energy deficit varied from 11.58 to 18.66%. The levels of lysine and methionine were found to be lesser than that of the requirement. Histidine and tryptophan were absent in the test feed. The study indicated that the feedstuffs fed by the farmers did not contain appreciable amount of protein and energy and protein and energy requirements of the pigs were not met. Hence, supplementation of concentrate feeds is required to get better production performance of growing pigs.