THE INFLUENCE OF JUVENILE BODY WEIGHT AND TWO FEEDING REGIMES DURING THE GROWING PHASE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND EARLY LAY CHARACTERISTICS OF PULLETS.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.v22i2.2414Keywords:
Juvenile Body Weight, Feed Regime, Growth, Egg ProductionAbstract
TWO experiments were conducted using 500
Black Olympian pullets to determine the effects of Juvenile body weight (Trial 1) and feeding regime (Trial 2) on growth and early lay performances. Results in trial 1 indicated significantly (P < 0.05) higher body weight at first egg (1489.9 vs 1383.8g) and 32 weeks of age (17833 vs 1655.2g) in heavybody weight (HBW) than LightBodyweight (LBW) groups but not on other parameters. Feeding the birds ad libitum also resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) higher feed intake during the first 18 weeks of age (9036.4 vs 6803.70. 18 -32 weeks of age (14,065.9 vs 11,420.9g), weight of first egg (47.43 vs. 43.16g), hen-housed average (53.9 vs 38.7%), egg mass (2,88039 vs. 211038g), feed/ dozen eggs (22853 vs. 1768.1g), grain feed /egg (190.4 vs. 14730 and body weight at 32 weeks of age (1808.1 vs 1716.6g). The results indicated earlier age at sexual maturity,lower mortality and higher body weights in H BW and ad lib feed (AF) groups but better production efficiency (feed/dozen eggs, cost/dozen eggs) in LBW and restricted feed (RF) groups.