A COMPARISON OF THE PERFORMANCE OF CAGED LAYERS FED SORGIIUM GRAIN OR PEARL MILLET*

Abstract

Two 280-day trials, each involving 468, 22-week-old caged commercial egg-strain pullets were conducted to Compare millet and sorghum grain as the main source of energy in laying diets. Diets containing 59.2 and 0, 41.0 and 24.0, 31.2 and 36.3 and 0 and 72.5% of sorghum grain and pearl millet, respectively, were studied in both trials The diets containing millet supported egg production, egg weight, feed conversion and egg shell thickness equivalent to those of the all-sorghum diet. Except in Trial 1, feed consumption of the pullets fed the millet-containing   diets was not significantly lower than that of the pullets fed the all-sorghum diet. Haugh unit values tended to decrease as the level of millet was decreased. Feeding millet at a level as high as 72.5% Of the diet may have adverse effects on egg specific gravity and haugh units