Effect of graded levels of ground rice offal on the performance of broiler starter chicks.

Abstract

Two hundred and seventy, (one- week old) broiler starter chicks were use to investigate the effect of graded dietary levels of ground rice offal on the performance of broilers at the starter phase. Six diets were formulated to contain ground rice offal at 0.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, 20.0 and 25.0 percent respectively. Each diet represented a treatment and each treatment was replicated three times with 15 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. The birds were housed under the deep litter system. Feed was given adlibitum. The experiment lasted for 4 weeks. The strain of birds used is a commercial broiler. Records taken includes weekly feed intake and weight gain. Mortality was recorded as it occurred. Daily water intake was measured by the difference between water measured in and water measured out the next morning. Results obtained indicates that levels of rice offal had significant (P<0.05) effect on all the performance parameters measured such as final weight, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, water intake, water : feed ratio and feed cost per kilogramme gain. However, birds on 10% ground rice offal gave the best performance in terms of final weight, weight gain and feed cost per kilogramme gain.

Keywords: Rice offal, Broiler chicks, Performance, Dietary levels, parameters.