Rearing of quails for meat when over intermittent lighting different modes

Abstract

Poultry farming is currently the most dynamic and important branch of agricultural production in most countries of the world, including Russia. It is necessary for the development of the poultry industry to fi nd ways to increase the effi ciency of the use of production resources. The rejection of natural lighting and the widespread use of windowless poultry houses in industrial poultry farming by increasing the role of artifi cial lighting, made it possible to develop modes for regulating the puberty of poultry, manage the daily rhythm of egg laying, increase poultry productivity by reducing energy costs. The purpose of the research was to determine the best variant of intermittent lighting mode when testing two modes with decreasing light day and with decreasing-increasing light day when rearing meat and egg quails. The results of studies of intermittent lighting during the day during the rearing of the meat-egg quails up to 6, 7 and 8 weeks of age have been presented in the experiment. It was found that the most effective lighting mode with a decreasing-increasing light day at the age of quails of 3–4,4–5 and 5–8 weeks according to the scheme 10L:1D:10L:3D, 7L:2D:7L:8D, 9L:2D:9L:4D (L is the period of light, D is the period of darkness). As has been shown by the productivity index, depending on the fi nal live weight, livability, feed intake per 1 kg of gain and the age of the quails at slaughter, in the group with the specified light mode, the production effi ciency was the highest, in comparison with other groups. The level of profi tability of quail meat production was 73,2 % observed when rearing quails with the specified light mode up to 6 weeks of age, 53,0 and 31,7 % when rearing for 7 and 8 weeks, respectively. Rearing quails up to 6 weeks of age is economically more efficient than rearing up to 7 and especially up to 8 weeks of age.