Circular, No. 8

LAYING HENS PROVIDE a year-round income, utilize off-season labor, help build a permanent system o f agriculture in Alaska

The Problem of Lame Chickens and Turkeys

Poultry--perhaps because of the fact that evolution resulted in the transformation of their forelimbs into wings, with a resultant greater strain on their remaining two legs-seem much like people in being bothered by bad feet. Frequently the cause lies in a sort of no man\u27s land between nutrition and management, but the fact remains that a host of disorders of the feet and legs of chickens and turkeys continues to plague the veterinarian, the nutritionist and the poultryman

Least-Cost Rations for Broilers

Whenever two items substitute for one another in doing the same job, it will often pay to use a little more of one and a little less of the other as costs for the two vary. Take broiler rations, for example

Least-cost rations and optimum marketing weights for broilers: Production functions, gain isoquants, substitution ratios, least-cost rations and optimum marketing weights for broilers fed corn and soybean oilmeal in a fortified ration

The major cost item in broilex production is feed. Previous studies indicate that feed costs generally constitute 65-75 percent of the total cost of producing broilers. Hence, one of the major opportunities for increasing profits from broiler production is to minimize the costs of producing birds of a given weight. Great progress has been made in recent years in developing high energy feeds and feeding formulas which lessen the total pounds of feed required in producing a bird of a given weight. However, even though high energy, rapid gain formulas have been developed, the problem of how major sources or categories of feeds should be combined to minimize costs of gains still remains. Ordinarily, broiler feeds are made up of two major categories of feeds, along with the proper vitamins and minerals. These two categories include feeds high in carbohydrate such as corn and feeds high in protein such as soybean oilmeal. If prices of these feeds did not change, the least-cost ration determined a( one point in time also would be the least-cost ration at all later points in time. However, the prices of these major feed sources do change. In recent years the price of corn has been as low as 1.8 cents per pound with soybean oilmeal as high as 4.5 cents per pound, a SBOM/corn price ratio of 2.5; in other years the price of corn has been as high as 4.5 cents per pound with soybean oilmeal as low as 3.5 cents per pound, a SBOM/corn price ratio of 0.8. The ration or combination of these two feeds which minimizes costs of gains under one of these price ratios will not also minimize costs under the other ratio

The Problem of "Lame" Chickens and Turkeys

Poultry--perhaps because of the fact that evolution resulted in the transformation of their forelimbs into wings, with a resultant greater strain on their remaining two legs-seem much like people in being bothered by "bad feet." Frequently the cause lies in a sort of "no man's land" between nutrition and management, but the fact remains that a host of disorders of the feet and legs of chickens and turkeys continues to plague the veterinarian, the nutritionist and the poultryman.</p