Performance Of Growing Pigs And Finisher Broilers Housed Together

Growth performance and cost of feeding young growing pigs and finisher broilers under integrated broiler/pig production system were investigated. Four young growing pigs (the control) were housed in pen A and fed 4% of their body weight as commercial growers feed. Another 4 were housed in pen B with broilers in cages placed above them and given 2% of their body weight as commercial growers feed and allowed to make up with droppings from the broilers above. Another 4 were housed without broilers in pen C and given 2% of their body weight as commercial growers feed and droppings collected from broilers housed without pigs in pen D. Each pig within a treatment was tagged and regarded as a replicate. The broilers were put in the cages at week 5 and given broilerfinisher feed ad libitum. They were removed at 9 weeks of age and replaced with another batch similarly raised, a process that was repeated 3 times in the I 2-week trial. The growth rate of the pigs of the control group was statistically similar to that of the group housed with broilers (P>0.05) but significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of the group housed without broilers. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the feed intake, growth rate and feed conversion ratio of the broilers housed with pigs and those housed without pigs. Cost analysis of the production systems showed that N104.00 was spent on feed to produce 1.0kg liveweight of pigs in the control group and N65.00 for the other two groups.Keywords: Pigs, broilers, integrated productio

Comparative evaluation of sun-dried and ensiled cassava peel meals as substitute for maize in broiler starter diets

A 28-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of dietary inclusion of Ensiled Cassava Peel Meal (ECPM) and Sun-dried Cassava Peel Meal (SCPM) on the performance of starter broiler chicks. Three treatment diets were formulated such that 50% of the maize in diet 1 (control) was replaced in diet 2 with ECPM and in diet 3 with SCPM. Each diet was fed to a group of 20 starter broiler chicks for 4 weeks. The birds fed on SCPM diet recorded significantly (P0.05) between the control birds and birds fed ECPM diet in terms of feed intake, body weight gain and growth rate. There was also no significant difference (P>0.05) between the control birds and birds fed ECPM but there was significant difference (

Use of qualitative feed restriction as a management strategy for finishing broilers

A 5-week experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of qualitative feed restriction through the use low-quality diet on finisher broiler performance, and to determine if sufficient compensatory growth can be achieved at that phase of broiler production. Seventytwo (72) 4 weeks old broiler chicks of Anak strain weighing of the average 1.0kg were randomly distributed into two groups, A and B, using completely randomized design. Each group was replicated 3 times with 12 broiler chicks per replicate and each replicate housed in a pen measuring 1.5 m x 2 m. Broilers in group A were given a standard broiler finisher diet continuously for 5 weeks while broilers in group B received a low-quality cheap diet based mainly on palm kernel cake and wheat offal for the first two weeks and then placed on the standard diet for the remaining three weeks of the trial. The birds were weighed at the beginning of the trial and weekly thereafter. At the end of the feeding trial, 4 birds were randomly selected from each group, weighed, sacrificed, de-feathered, eviscerated and their internal organs as well as the abdominal fat, weighed. There was no significant difference in feed intake between the groups (P>0.05) at the end of the trial but the group on the high fibre low-quality diet consumed significantly (P<0.05) more feed during the 2 weeks. Daily body weight gain of the birds on the low-quality diet was lower than that of their counterparts in the control diets in the first 2 weeks but remarkably and progressively increased up to the end of the feeding trial. There was, however, no significant difference between the groups (P>0.05) in the final body weights. There were no significant differences in internal organ weights of the groups (P>0.05). However, abdominal fat weight was significantly (P<0.05) reduced by qualitative feed restriction. Feed cost of production (N/kg weight gain) were N348.69 and N343.78 for the control and qualitative feed restricted groups, respectively. The results have shown that sufficient compensatory growth can be achieved in broiler production even when the period of production is just 5 weeks.Keyword: Finisher broilers, qualitative feed restriction, low-quality diet, compensatory growt

Nutritional Evaluations and the Effects of Ensiled and Sun-Dried Cassava Peel Meals on the Performance of Finisher Broilers

A 28-day feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of dietary inclusion of ensiled cassava peel meal (ECPM) and sun-dried cassava peel meal (SCPM) on the performance of finisher broilers. Three treatment diets were formulated such that 50% of the maize in diet 1 (control) was replaced in diet 2 with ensiled cassava peel meal (ECPM) and in diet 3 with sun-dried cassava peel meal (SCPM). Each diet was fed to a group of 20 finisher broilers for four weeks. The birds fed on SCPM diet recorded significantly (p<0.05) depressed body weight. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the control birds and birds fed the ECPM diet in terms of body weight gain and growth rate. The feed conversion ratio of the groups followed similar trend. There was however significant difference (p<0.05) between the average feed intake of the control birds and those on sun dried cassava peel meal. Cost of feed was reduced by about 20% by replacing 50% of the maize in the control diet with either ECPM or SCPM in the finisher diets

Observations on the patho-physiological responses of pigs raised under integrated broiler/pig production system

No Abstract. Bulletin of Animal Health and Production in Africa Vol. 52 (2) 2004: pp. 111-11