Evaluation of the Feeding Value of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Chicken
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Date
2022
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the feeding value of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) on the feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics of Cobb-500 chickens at Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC). The experiment was conducted for 56 days. The experimental diets were formulated containing (0, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) sorghum variety Melkam (SVM) for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. A total of 210 un-sexed day-old Cobb-500 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to the five dietary treatments. Chemical compositions of feed ingredients were analyzed and body weight (BW), feed intake, carcass characteristics, meat quality parameters and mortality rate were measured and recorded. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) and BW changes were calculated from feed intake and BW. The results indicated that inclusion of SVM in to the broiler diet didn’t bring a significant change on the feed intake, BW gain and FCR of chickens in the starter phase (0-21 days of age). However, significant differences (P<0.05) were observed among the treatments in FCR, average daily BW gain (ADG) and BW change of broiler chickens in the finisher phase (22-56 days of age). The FCR and BW change were increased in a diet
containing high level (40 and 50%) of SVM. The carcass yield, weight of vital organs and cut up parts of broiler chicken did not differ (P>0.05) significantly due to variations of sorghum level in the diet. There was a significant (P<0.05) difference among all the treatment groups in economic analysis. There was significant (P<0.05) difference in net income (NI) between treatments, and the highest net profit per bird was found on a broiler diet containing 50% SVM. From this study it can be concluded that SVM could be economically and safely included in to the broiler diets up to 50% as alternative energy source to maize
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Keywords
Broiler chicken, Sorghum, Carcass characteristics, Feed intake, Growth performance