Effects of feeding varying levels of rice milling waste on the performance, nutrient retention and production economy of growing local turkeys.

A feeding trial was undertaken to evaluate the potential feeding values of Rice Milling waste as a substitute for maize in the diet of growing turkeys, the optimal substitution level for maize, and economic efficiency of substituting maize with rice milling waste, in the diets of growing turkeys. Five experimental diets were formulated by substituting maize with rice milling waste at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% levels respectively. One hundred local turkey poults brooded with commercial broiler starter mash were randomly assigned to the five treatment diets. Each treatment group was replicated two times having 10 poults per replicate. The trial was arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD). Feed and water were provided ad libitum. The experiment lasted sixteen weeks. Parameters measured include economic indices, efficiency of feed utilization and growth performance (weight changes, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and percentage mortality). Results obtained showed that feeding growing turkeys with 50% rice milling waste produced enhanced performance that was next to the control in terms of mean final weight, final weight gain, best economic benefit and nutrient utilization efficiency while 100% substitution level gave the poorest value.Keywords: Turkey poults, nutrient utilization, economic appraisal, and rice-milling waste

Substitution value of squilla meal for fish meal in broiler production: Effects on growth performance, carcass and organ proportions

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the substitution effects of squilla meal for fish meal in broiler diets. One hundred and twenty unsexed day-old broiler chickens of AborAcre strains were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Each dietary group had 24 birds, replicated thrice, with eight birds per replicate. The birds were managed in a deep litter pen, fed and watered adlibitum for a period of seven weeks. Diet 1 was designated as the control, while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 had their fish meal substituted at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. The mean body weight changes and feed intake were significantly (P<0.05) influenced, while the feed-to-gain ration was not. Birds fedDiet 1(control) gave the best total weight gain value (1804.55g), which was closely followed by birds fed Diet 4 (1776.77g), Diet 3 (1765.85g) and Diet 5 (1616.09g). Birds fed Diet 2 gave the least value of 1565.59g. All the carcass parameters evaluated showed no significant (P>0.05) difference, but kidney, abdominal fat and proventriculus were significantly (P<0.05) different but followed no definite pattern traceable to the diets. In conclusion, Squilla meal has shown to have positive comparative effects on the mean weight gain, carcass and organ proportions of broilers fed these diets. So, it is recommended at 75% level of substitution