PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMICS OF PRODUCTION OF BROILER CHICKS FED DIETS WITH VARYING ENERGY LEVELS

Abstract

Three hundred and eighty-four unsexed Anak broiler chicks raised from day-old to 28days of age were used to evaluate the effects of different dietary energy levels on their performance. The experiment was of a completely randomized design (CRD). The diets were isonitrogenous. There were 3 dietary energy treatments (2786.80, 3015.40 and 3252.20 kcal/kg) and 4 replicates per treatment with 32 chicks per replicate. Birds were randomly selected for performance evaluation. The feed intake and live weight of the birds were determined weekly. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The final weight gained, total weight gained, average weight gained and FCR were significantly influenced (P<0.05) with chicks fed HES diet showing optimum performance. The results, however, indicated that the cost of feed per unit weight gain was lowest in High energy diet followed by Optimum and Low energy diets respectively.