Abstract

Differentiated broiler feeding consists of four main phases: pre-starter, starter, growth, and finishing. Further improvement of the feeding schemes of meat chickens aims at dividing the main phases into shorter periods that differ in the nutritional value and energy value or physical structure of compound feeds. The most important are the pre-starter (the first seven days of the chicken life) and the final (25 days and before slaughter) phases of broiler feeding. In the performed studies, the practicality and effectiveness of meat chicken feeding schemes with the division of the finishing period into three phases (experiment 1) and the use of the super-starter period in the pre-starter phase (experiment 2) are scientifically justified in two experiments. The object of the study was broilers of the cross “Cobb-500”. In experiment 1, two groups of oneday-old chickens were formed: a control group and an experimental group with 6-and 7-phase feeding, respectively. In group 1, the finishing period was divided into two phases, in group 2 – into 91 three phases. The results of growing broilers showed that the growth rate, the safety of livestock, and the yield of meat per unit area in group 2, respectively, were 0.7 g; 0.6% and 1.1 kg were higher. The comprehensive final indicators – the broiler productivity and meat production efficiency indices were 11 and 13 units or 3.0 and 11.7% higher in group 2, respectively, and the level of profitability of meat production was 0.5% higher in group 2 compared to group 1. In experiment 2, six groups of one-day-old chickens were formed. Groups 1k, 2k, and 3k are the control ones, while groups 4, 5 and 6 – experimental ones. Broilers 1k and 4 were separated from the parent herd of 29 weeks of age, groups 2k and 5 – from the bird of 32 weeks, and groups 3k and 6 – from the parents of 34 weeks of age. In the control groups, pre-starter feed was fed to chickens from the daily to 7-day-old age. In the experimental groups, broilers received super–starter feed in the first four days and pre-starter feed in 5–7 days. In the future, the chickens of all groups will be fed equally according to the 6-phase feeding scheme. The study results showed that broilers who received superprestarter in the first four days on average reached 2528 g of live weight at the pre-slaughter age (39 days), which is 66 g or 2.6% more in comparison with chickens of the control groups. According to the average weight of gutted carcasses, there was a significant superiority of the experimental groups. The broiler productivity and meat production efficiency indices in the experimental groups averaged 385 and 116 units, respectively, which is 16 and 20 units more than in the control groups. The level of profitability of meat production in groups 4, 5, and 6 was 1.3%.; 2.4 and 0.1% higher than in groups 1k, 2k, and 3k, respectively. The results obtained in the studies allow us to conclude that the use of a 7-phase scheme in the feeding of broilers with the division of the finishing period into three phases (25–30, 31–34, and 35–39 days) with the level of metabolic energy of 318, 322 and 325 kcal per 100 g of feed and raw protein 19.0, 18.5 and 18.2%, respectively, is appropriate. The use of superstarter in the first four days of the prestarter phase and prestarter in 5–7-day-old meat chickens increases the zootechnical and economic efficiency.

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