Effects on performance of growing pigs fed diets containing different levels of dried cashew pulp.

The purpose was to investigate the use of dried cashew pulp (DrCP), the sun-dried residue after juice has been extracted from the cashew apple, as a feed ingredient in growing pig diets. The growth rate, feed intake, feed to gain ratio and cost of gain of grower pigs fed diets containing 0 (0DrCP), 100 (100DrCP), 150 (150DrCP) or 200 (200DrCP) g kg(-1) of dried cashew pulp was investigated in a feeding trial set up as a Completely randomized design with 4 treatments replicated 3 times and lasting 112 days. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) among treatments in the parameters measured. It was concluded that dried cashew pulp could be used in growing pig diets up to a level of 200 g kg(-1) without any deleterious effects. Future work will look at higher levels of DrCP inclusion in the diets of growing pigs.

Post-partum reproductive performance of Sanga cattle in smallholder peri-urban dairy herds in the Accra plains of Ghana.

The reproductive performance of 76 Sanga cows was studied from February 1995 to July 1996 in smallholder peri-urban dairy systems in the coastal savanna zone of the Accra plains of Ghana. The interval from calving to resumption of cyclic ovarian activity was 101 +/- 7 days; that from calving to conception was 152 +/- 4 days; gestation length was 292 +/- 16 days; and the calving interval was 444 +/- 16 days. The effects of location, season of calving, parity, body condition score and sex of calf were studied. Calving to cycling interval was significantly shorter in the dry season than in the wet season, and decreased significantly with increasing body condition score. Calving to conception interval was affected only by location. Gestation length was not affected by any of the variables studied. Calving interval was affected by location, season of calving, parity and body condition score. It is concluded that long post-partum anoestrus leads to prolonged calving intervals and poor reproductive performance. Feed supplementation to improve the nutritional status and body condition score of cows and early weaning of calves could be introduced to enhance reproductive performance.