PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMICS OF FINISHER BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETS CONTAINING MAIWA MILLET (PENNISETUM GLAUCUM). REPLACEMENT FOR RED SORGHUM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.6751Keywords:
Performance, Broiler, Economics, Finisher, Maiwa Millet, Red SorghumAbstract
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance and cost benefits of replacing red sorghum with Maiwa millet in broiler finisher diets. Three hundred broiler chickens weighing 899.99 - 985.53g each were assigned to five diets in replicates of four containing 15 birds each in a completely randomized design. In the diets Maiwa millet replaced red sorghum at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels, designated as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. Feed and water were served ad libitum during the experiment which lasted for four weeks. Daily feed intake of birds did not differ among treatments and
ranged between 90-18-97’23g on T5 and T2, respectively. However, daily weight gain was higher (P<0.05) in broiler birds feed T5 (56.53g), feed conversion ratio was better for broiler chickens fed T5 (1.60). Economics indices showed that total feed intake was highest (2.72kg) on T2 and lowest (2.53kg) on T5, feed cost per kg was lowest on T5 (N287.01) and highest on T1 (N392.11) while feed cost per kg gain was N541.98 (T4) and N601.96 (T1). The highest cost savings of N142.38 was made on T4. It was concluded that Maiwa millet can completely replace red sorghum in broiler finisher diets without any negative effect on growth performance. Replacing red sorghum with Maiwa at 75% level gave a highest cost savings.
