| Abstrakt: |
The study was conducted in the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Animal Science and Range Management, Modibbo Adama University, Yola, to evaluate the performance and cost effectiveness of replacing wheat offal with rice offal in broiler diets. Two hundred unsexed broiler chicks (day old) were used for the experiment. The chicks were randomly assigned to five treatments consisting of 40 birds per treatment replicated four times with ten birds per replicate, in a completely randomized design (CRD). Five (5) starter and finisher diets were formulated for the study, where rice offal replaced wheat offal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% and coded as T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively. The experiment was concluded after eight weeks (four weeks each for starter and finisher phases). The results showed no significant (P>0.05) differences in all the productive parameters measured. However, numerical differences exist in all the parameters with higher values in favor of wheat offal. Mortality recorded was highest in T1 but this may not be attributed to treatment effects. The result of economic analysis showed that cost of feed decreases with increase in level of rice offal in the diets (from 303.77-301.57/kg). However, total feed intake increased with increase in level of rice offal (up to 50% in T3) in the diets, then decrease thereafter, the total cost of feed eaten also followed the same trend, from 838.14 in T1-880.77 in T3 then decrease to 796.15 in T5 (100% RO). Cost per kg body weight gained also increase with increase in level of rice offal in the diets except in T4 (75% RO) where the cost/kg gain was lower than in T1 (100% WO). It is therefore concluded that rice offal can replace 100% of wheat offal in broiler chicken diets. However, 75% replacement of WO with RO gave better cost per kg weight gain. A marginal cost saving benefit of 5.46 was obtained at this level of inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
