The Effect of Feeding Sorghum-Barley Brewer’s Spent Grain (Sbbsg) on Performance and Egg Quality of Laying Hens

Abstract

The objective of the study was to establish if inclusion of Sorghum-Barley Brewer’s Spent Grain (SBBSG) in laying hen diets will affect laying performance and egg quality. A total of 300 Bovan Brown laying hens (37 weeks old) were randomly allocated in a completely randomized design, to five dietary treatments, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, representing 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% SBBSG inclusion in the diets, respectively. Each treatment was replicated 4 times and the trial lasted 112 days. Feed and water were provided ad-lib. Eggs laid were collected twice daily and laying performance and egg quality characteristics determined. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) among treatment diets for hen day and hen housed egg production, daily feed intake and egg weight. FCE was similar for T4 and T5 (0.54 and 0.54 respectively) and significantly better (P<0.05) than for T1, T2 and T3 (0.53, 0.53 and 0.53 respectively). Birds on T5 had eggs with significantly thicker shells (0.44mm) than that of birds on T1 to T4 (0.42, 0.42, 0.43 and 0.42 mm respectively). Birds that had no SBBSG in their diet (T1) had egg yolks with the highest cholesterol concentration (414.9 mg/dl). This was significantly higher (P<0.05) than cholesterol concentration of eggs from T2, T3, T4 and T5 (266.66, 279.62, 243.52 and 246.61mg/d), respectively. Feed cost per kg egg produced for birds on T5 was 1.33 GH¢. This was significantly lower (P<0.05) than feed cost for birds on T1 (1.41 GH¢) and similar (P>0.05) to birds fed T2 to T4 (1.38, 1.37 and 1.35 GH¢), respectively. The present study shows that SBBSG can effectively be included in laying hen diets up to 20% without any adverse effect on laying performance and egg quality while at the same time reducing egg cholesterol content and being cheaper.

Keywords: Sorghum-Barley Brewer’s Spent Grain (SBBSG), Layers, Egg Quality