MONETARY COST ANALYSIS OF REPLACEMENT VALUE OF ACHA (Digitaria exilis Staph) FOR MAIZE IN BROILER CHICKENS DIETS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the cost of replacement value of acha (Digitaria exilis Staph) for maize in broiler diets. Five diets were formulated which unprocessed acha replaced maize at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% for the starter and finisher phase. Two hundred and twenty-five unsexed marshal broiler chicks were weighed and randomly allotted to five dietary treatments with three replicates per diet. Treatment 1 had thehighest monetary  value of ₦240.32 as cost of the feeds as compared to Acha with monetary value of ₦215.29,₦223.05, ₦232.72  and ₦238.85 in feed 2,3,4 and 5 respectively (25%,50%,75% and 100% Acha); this trend indicated that the diets consisting of Acha had lower feed cost. The money saved from the production of the birds indicated that more money was saved in feed 3 (50% Acha) in the process of production. It can be concluded that unprocessed acha could replace maize especially at 50% level of inclusion in the diets of broilers with concomitant reduction in cost of feed/kgLWG.