The Effect of Feeding Varying Levels of Dehydrated Alfalfa Leaf Meal on the Growth of Chicks and Poults

Abstract

DRAPER (1948) reported that, when either sun cured alfalfa meal or dehydrated alfalfa meal was fed to chicks, there was a significant decline in weight as the quantity was increased from 5 to 15 percent of the ration fed. Cooney, Butts and Bacon (1948) reported that alfalfa leaf meal contained an unidentified factor which reduced growth when this feed was fed to New Hampshire chicks, at levels about 10 percent of the ration. Insko and Culton (1949) reported that great differences existed in the growth promoting properties of different samples of alfalfa meal when fed to chicks. Wilgus (1950) studied the growth promoting properties of 80 different samples of alfalfa leaf meal in chick rations and reported that different samples of alfalfa contained varying amounts of growth inhibitor when fed at a level of 20 percent of the ration, and that dehydrated alfalfa leaf meal from the third cutting appeared .