The Performance of Male Broiler Genotypes Reared to Roaster Weight and Females Reared to Broiler Weight on a Low Protein Dietary Regimen

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with 2400 birds (1200 of each sex) of four commercial broiler genotypes (300 males and 300 females) to study their performance reared to roaster weight on a low protein, three stage (16–20–16) feeding program. Birds were housed separately by sex and genotype, and each of 16 pens (25.64 m2) housed 150 birds. The assignment of genotype and sex to pens was completely randomized with a duplicate pen of each genotype and sex. The results indicate that this roaster program is not genotype specific and that males reached the marketable roaster weight by 70 days of age and yielded comparative monetary returns regardless of genotype used. The study also showed that the program supported good growth of females, which on average reached marketable broiler weight (1865 g) in 49 days. Thus, the results indicate that this feeding program could be used with a mixed sex population with the males marketed as roasters at 70 days and the females marketed earlier as broilers.