The pig pictured above is eating some ground corn, but the farmers learned yesterday that what these pigs really love is sweet potato leaves.
In preparation for the sweet potato harvest in the kitchen garden, the vines and spade-shaped leaves of the plants were removed. A test potato was dug and it was enormous. (Photo still to come.)
On a hunch that the pigs would enjoy the leaves, Farmer Rob and Intern Virginia threw a huge pile into the pigpen. Sure enough, within a few hours, every last morsel was devoured.
A quick search on the Internet reveals that sweet potato leaves are routinely used in Asia, and increasingly in Africa, to feed cows and pigs. The sweet potato is especially useful as livestock feed in the developing world because it can grow in harsh conditions with minimal inputs:
http://www.ilri.org/node/2759
In preparation for the sweet potato harvest in the kitchen garden, the vines and spade-shaped leaves of the plants were removed. A test potato was dug and it was enormous. (Photo still to come.)
On a hunch that the pigs would enjoy the leaves, Farmer Rob and Intern Virginia threw a huge pile into the pigpen. Sure enough, within a few hours, every last morsel was devoured.
A quick search on the Internet reveals that sweet potato leaves are routinely used in Asia, and increasingly in Africa, to feed cows and pigs. The sweet potato is especially useful as livestock feed in the developing world because it can grow in harsh conditions with minimal inputs:
http://www.ilri.org/node/2759
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