Substituting Maize with Sweet Potato
The demand for maize is always in the higher side, believe me its not coming down anytime soon.
We as Farmers and Nutritionist are now looking for the best substitute for Maize. We have talked about wheat offal in one or two of our article, if you have been following us on www.nagro.com.ng
Wheat offal is more of Fibre, and they act as fillers. To make the feed plenty, but it can cause watery droppings when it is much in the feed plus it doesnt have much energy as compared to maize.
Some Farmers have tried using cassava as a substitute for Maize, but i have to give it to you, the level of anti nutritive factor is high and thus make cassava impossible to substitute for Maize.
Though some farmers are using it at a very low quantity in their feed formulation.
We are research farmers and we would not Jeopadize the Future of your business.
What Make Potato a good Substitute for Maize?
The nutrient composition of sweet potato tuber meal (SPM) was similar to that of maize With the exceptions of crude protein and calcium.
The crude protein content was lower (62 in SBM Vs 91 g/kg) and the calcium content was higher (l.9 in SBM Vs 0.l g/kg) .
The amino acid composition, in general, favoured SPM.
Trypsin inhibitor activity, and the contents of oxalate and phytate-phosphorus in SPM were too low to be of any nutritional concern.
The apparent metabolisable energy content of SPM was determined to be similar to that of maize (14.5l V 14.45 MJ/kg).
Sources of the above Stat was
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8833531/
In Another Research, It is concluded that SPM should not be included beyond 20% level when substituted for maize on a weight for weight basis without adjusting the dietary protein and energy.
