PERFORMANCE OF BROILER STARTER BIRDS FED SORGHUM WITH DIFFERENT ENERGY LEVELS AS REPLACEMENT FOR MAIZE

Abstract

The effect of substituting maize with sorghum using different energy levels was studied on broiler birds. Broiler chicks were assigned to one of the following experimental diets. T1: maize based diet containing 2,900kcal ME/Kg (control). T2, T3 and T4: were all sorghum based diets 2,900, 3,000 and 3,100 ME kcal/kg respectively. Feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio were measured and determined. The results showed that final weight, weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and cost of feed per kg gain were similar (P>0.05) among the treatment means. Feed intake differ significantly (P<0.05) among the treatments with T1 having higher feed intake than T3. T2 and T4 have similar (P>0.05) feed intake to both T1 and T3. Total cost of feed consumed (₦/b) differ significantly (p<0.05) with T3 (209.37) having the lowest compared to T1 and T4 (251.76 and 236.71). T2 (215.71) had similar total feed cost to T3 and T4. was statistically similar with T4 having (177.89/kg) compared to the other treatments (213.91, 208.80 and 200.53 for T1,T2 and T3 respectively). In conclusion T4 was the most economical as it had lower FCR and cost per kg gain.