Daily Nutrient Intake as a Basis for Formulating Turkey Starter and Grower Diets

Abstract

SEMI-PURIFIED experimental turkey starter and grower diets which were developed at Oklahoma State University made it possible to produce a pound of market turkey on 2.2 pounds of feed (Thayer et al., 1961). The data from this feeding trial were used as a nutrient standard, and a linear programming program with an electronic computer was employed to formulate starter diets which contained practical feed ingredients. These practical type starter diets were formulated to be the equivalent in protein, amino acids and energy of the original semi-purified starter diet. Daily nutrient intake standards were developed for males and for females for each successive week of the growing period. These daily nutrient intake standards were utilized in modifying the starter diets into a series of grower diets. The practical type grower diets developed in this manner were fed to growing turkeys during an entire growing period from day-old to market weight. The…