Effect of Substituting Maize Based Stock-feed Diets with Sorghum on the Performance of Quails

Abstract

Sorghum has a high similarity to maize and therefore a good substitute for maize based diets in poultry stock-feed. Additionally, sorghum is processed just like maize in both dry and wet milling techniques. Nonetheless, a general misconception in Zambia is that all sorghums have anti-quality factors (tannins). This misconception may have resulted in its underutilisation in poultry feed in Zambia. However, various tannin free varieties and hybrids developed by the Sorghum & Millets Improvement Programme are available in Zambia. Kuyuma, a tannin free white sorghum variety was used to determine the suitability of using non-tannin white sorghum varieties in quail feed. In this study a maize-based stock-feed diet for quails was substituted with sorghum at four levels: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% in quail meat production. This was followed by measuring: (i) The weekly feed intake, (ii) The weekly gain in body weight and (iii) The weekly feed conversion ratio of quails.The performance of quails fed on a maize-based diet was identical to quails fed on a sorghum-based diet at nearly all levels of substitution. The conversion ratios of maize and sorghum were also similar. Non-tannin white sorghums like Kuyuma can effectively substitute maize in quail diets. Utilising sorghum in poultry diets could increase its social-economic value and help to reduce the cost of producing meat.