Du Thanh Hang et al., 1997. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 9 (2)

Growing Mong Cai pigs (10-14 kg live weight) were used in a 4*4 Latin square arrangement of 4 treatments, which were: ensiled cassava leaves, fresh foliage of cowpea, fresh duckweed, and silage made from a mixture of cassava and trichantera (Trichantera gigantea) leaves. These were given as the sole protein source in diets in which fresh sugar cane juice was the source of energy.

The intake of leaves, as percent of the total dry matter, ranged from 4% (cowpea) to 30% (ensiled cassava leaves). The digestibility of diet dry matter decreased with increase of leaves in the diet: from 96% (4% of leaves in diet dry matter) to 86% (30% of leaves in diet dry matter). On the basis of the regression of digestibility on percent leaves in diet dry matter it was estimated that the apparent dry matter digestibility of the leaves was on average 77%. N retention increased linearly as the proportion of leaves in the diet increased and was highest for ensiled cassava leaves.

Ensiled cassava leaves appeared to be the most palatable (highest N retention) of the foliages followed by duckweed. The fresh cowpea foliage was not liked by the Mong Cai pigs.