STUDY ON HYDROPONIC CULTIVATION OF MAIZE AND SESBANIA SPROUTED FODDER AND THEIR EFFECTS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF TURKEY

Abstract

The present study was designed to determine nutritional composition and investigate the effect and economic value of hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder replaced by commercial concentrate feed (CCF) on growth performances of turkey. The study was conducted at the Advance Animal Research Farm of Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur, Bangladesh. A total of 48 (8- wks-old) turkeys were randomly assigned into four dietary treatment (T1, T2, T3, T4) groups where each group consisting of 3 replications having 4 birds in each. T1 considered as control group fed only CCF where T2, T3 and T4 denoted groups of turkeys fed the diet comprising of 90, 70 and 60% CCF and 10, 30, 40% hydroponic sprouted fodders, respectively. The ratio of hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodders were 80 and 20, 70 and 30, 60 and 40%, respectively. The percentage of moisture, dry matter (DM), ash, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen free extract (NFE) on dry matter basis contents of hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder was 85.21 & 90.54, 14.79 & 9.46, 2.50 & 3.41, 97.5 & 96.6, 10.92 & 37.26, 5.30 & 7.21, 2.94 & 3.71, 78.34 & 48.41, respectively. The ash, CP and CF (%) were significantly higher (P< 0.01) in hydroponic sesbania than maize sprouted fodder but the NFE (%) was significantly higher (P< 0.01) in hydroponic maize than sesbania sprouted fodder. The results revealed that dietary supplementation of hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder replaced by commercial concentrate feed increased live weight in T2 (2.83) than T1, T3 and T4 (2.64, 2.39 & 2.09), respectively, live weight gain T2 (20.61) than T1, T3 and T4 (18.39, 15.55 & 12.07), respectively and highest FCE observed in T1 (5.26) and lowest as well as best FCE observed in T2 (4.03) group of turkey. On the other hand, the cost effective analysis showed higher benefit in T2 than other T1, T3 and T4 groups. Therefore, dietary supplementation of CCF replaced by hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder at 10% level may improve live weight, feed efficiency of turkey as well as reduce total cost of feed.