Effect of total replacement of maize with brewer's spent grain and maize offal on performance of laying hens

Abstract

A 56-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the possibility of total replacement of maize component in layer diets with combinations of maize/sorghum-based brewer's dried grains and maize offal using 96 Shika Brown layers, 15 weeks in lay. Four experimental layer diets were formulated to contain maize, brewer's spent grains and maize offal at 50, 0, 0; 0,12.5, 37.5; 0, 25, 25; and 0, 37.5, 12.5 levels for T₁ (control) T₂. T₃ and T₄ respectively. Each diet was fed to a group of 24 layer hens already in their 15th week of lay for 56 days. There was no significant (p<0.05) difference among the birds in T₁,T₂ and T₃ with respect to feed intake, hen-day production egg weight and feed conversion ratio. In all these parameters, the control (T₁) performed better than T₄. In terms of shell thickness, T₁, T₂, and T₃ had similar (p>0.05) values but superior to T₄. There was no significant difference observed in all groups in other egg quality characteristics – Haugh unit, albumen index and yolk index.

Keywords: Maize; brewer's spent grain; maize offal; laying hens

International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences Vol. 2 (3) 2006: pp. 268-271