Performance of Broilers Raised on Dual and Triple Phase Feeding Regimes in an Open-Sided Poultry House

Abstract

Performance of broilers raised under different multi-phase feeding regimes in the open-sided poultry house. One hundred and twenty day-old, Arbor-acre® broilers were divided into five groups of 24 birds each and each group replicated three times on weight equalization basis. Each group was assigned in a completely randomized design (CRD) experiment to one of the following multi-phase broiler feeding regimes; T₁ [(control), starter 0-28 days, finisher, 29 - 56 days]; T₂ [starter, 0-35days, finisher, 36-56 days]; T₃ [starter, 0-21 days, finisher, 22-56days];T4 [starter, 0-7 days, grower, 8- 21 days, finisher, 22-56 days];T₅ [starter, 0-21days, grower, 22-35days, finisher, 36-56 days]. Feed and water were offered ad libitum and the study lasted 56days.Results indicated that broilers on treatment T2 recorded significantly (p<0.05) higher final body weight, body weight gain and lower feed intake and better feed conversion ratio than those in other groups. Birds on diets T₂ recorded the best (2.22) feed conversion ratio, lowest feed cost per kg body weight gain (N325.45) and least input cost (N1513.64). Net income was similarly, significantly (p<0.05) higher (N1014.10) among broilers in T₂ than other groups. It appears that in the dual phase feeding regimes (T₁, T₂ and T₃), the longer the feeding duration of starter ration, the better the production parameters while the triple-phase feeding regime (T₄ and T₅) indicated similar (p<0.05) performance irrespective of the feeding duration of the three feed types. It is recommended that a longer starter feeding period as represented in T₂ (0 – 35days) of the dual phase feeding regime be adopted when broilers are raised in the open sided poultry house.