Assessment of nutrient contents in ready-made broiler feeds and their effects on production performance

Abstract

Quality is the main determinant factor for assessing feed staff. The quality of feed was assessed based on the visual observation, lab analyses and biological trial. In this regard, ready-made broiler starter feed samples (D1, D2, D3 and D4) were collected from local market for laboratory analyses and biological trial (feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio) with broiler. Data on dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether extract (EE), ash, Ca, and P contents (%) of feeds were collected from lab assays. The nutrient contents in the ready-made feeds were as per recommendation of the desired level, though, in few cases, excessive amount of EE (8.0%) and CP (24.50 %) contents were noticed. The ME content of most of the feeds were in higher (>3300 Kcal) amount. For biological trial, a total of 96 Ross 308 broiler chicks were fed on ready-made diets in the age duration of day old to 25 days to compare the growth performance of broilers of different dietary groups. All the forms of feed were identical (crumble) as well as same management and environments were provided for all the treatment. The study was aimed at investigating the productivity of broilers. The data revealed that FI, BW and FCR of broilers were similar (P>0.05) between treatment though the FCR of broilers differed (P<0.05) between treatments from d1-7 days only. Birds fed D1 diet attained higher (P<0.097) BW (1414.0 g/b) than that of other diets on day 25. The FCR values of broilers on D2 (1.27) diet group assumed to be better (P<0.06) than those of other diet group on 25d. It can be inferred that broilers fed on ready-made diets grew evenly on different ready-made diets, despite the variation of nutrient composition was found in different diets.