Performance of Broilers on Different Types of Water Equipment

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted comparing Plasson2 plastic hanging fountains and Hart cups. Five C-9N Hart cups per 150 broilers were compared to one Plasson fountain per 150 mixed broilers in Experiment 1. Broilers in the pens equipped with the Plasson fountain were significantly heavier (P<.05) at 8 weeks of age than the broilers in the pens equipped with the Hart cups with body weights of 1916 and 1883 g, respectively. In Experiment 2, one Plasson fountain or three C-9N Hart cups were used in pens of sexed broilers with 90 males or 112 females. No differences in body weight were found between the watering systems at 5, 6, and 7 weeks of age; however, at 8, 9, and 10 weeks of age the broilers reared on the Hart cups were significantly heavier (P<.05) than the broilers reared on the Plasson fountains with body weights of 1696, 1884, and 2115 and 1649, 1826, and 2088 g, respectively. In Experiment 3, with 136 mixed sex broilers per pen, no significant difference (P>.05) in 8-week body weight was found between one Plasson fountain or three C-9N Hart cups per pen with body weights of 1928 and 1913 g, respectively. No significant difference (P>.05) was found for 8-week body weight in Experiment 4 when one Plasson fountain or two C-9X Hart cups per pen of 75 male broilers were used with body weights of 2236 and 2222 g, respectively. No differences (P>.05) were found in any of the experiments due to type of waterer for feed efficiency or mortality. Litter in the first three experiments was higher in moisture content under the Hart cups than under the Plasson fountains.