PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMICS OF PRODUCTION OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIFFERENT COMMERCIAL DIETS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.5224Keywords:
Broiler chickens, Commercial diets, Performance, Economics of productionAbstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of broiler chickens to five different commercial diets. Two hundred and fifty day-old chicks were randomly allotted to five diets in replicates of three containing 16 birds each in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum and the feeding trial lasted for 42 days. Results for performance showed that at 4 weeks, birds on diet B had significantly (P<0.05) higher weight (2129.69g) than those on the other diets. Feed conversion ratio was also better (P<0.05) on birds fed diet B (1.35) than those fed other diets. A similar trend was observed for final weight, with birds on diet B recording the highest (P<0.05) mean weight of (2660.38g) compared to those on other diets (1792.37 – 2114.33g). Feed cost per kg was similar and higher on diets B and E (N158.00). However, feed cost per kg body weight gain was lowest on diet B (N306.01) and higheron dietE (N441.63). It was therefore concluded that diet B gave better performance at reduced feed cost, hence recommended for broiler chicken producers.
