COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC PARAMETERS OF NOILER, NERA BLACK AND ISA BROWN LAYERS IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The experiment was conducted using three strains of layers; Isa brown, Nera black and Noiler (60 each) to compare the performance characteristics, economy of production, and nutrients digestibility of the three strains of layers. The birds were fed with commercial feeds and the project lasted 16 weeks. A total of 180 birds, 36 weeks old, consisting 60 each of Isa brown, Nera black and Noiler strains raised from day old at the College farm representing treatments 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The birds were allotted to three treatments with fifteen birds per replicates and four replicates per treatment. The experiment lasted twenty- four weeks The parameters considered were egg production, egg weight, final weight, total feed intake, cost of feeds intake, price of spent layers, total revenue, total direct expenses. The feed intake, final weight, egg weight and total feed intake were affected by the strains. Noiler had highest values (132.24g/day/bird, 2.76kg/bird, 63.80g and 22.22kg/bird,
respectively) which were significantly higher (p<0.05) than Nera black (129.82g/day/bird, 2.06kg/bird, 59.72g and 21.81kg/bird, respectively) and Isa brown (128.40g/day/bird, 1.93kg/bird, 58.03g and 21.57kg/bird, respectively). The total expenses of isa brown was the lowest (N2,588.54/bird) followed by near black (N2,617.17/bird) while noiler had the highest (N2,665.96/bird). Revenue from sales of eggs of isa brown was the highest (N3,616.00/bird) while revenue from sales of spent layer of noiler was the highest. Noiler chicken had the best economic returns. It is concluded that noiler showed the lowest performance characteristics with better overall economic returns.