THE USE OF TWO EMPIRICAL METHODS OF SUBSTITUTION OF FEEDSTUFFS: PARBOILED CASSAVA PEEL MEAL VERSUS MAIZE IN THE DIETS OF GROWTH COCKERELS

Abstract

The effect of two empirical methods of substituting maize with parboiled cassava peel meal (PCPM) in the diets of 168, 11-week old Isa Brown cockerels were examined in a 3-week experiment. The control diet A contained 40% maize while the proportion of maize in the control diet was replaced with PCPM at the graded levels of 20% of diets B and C, 30% of diets D and E and 40% of diets F and G with and without regard to the energy content of PCPM respectively. Consequently, diets A, B, D and F contained metabolisable energy (ME) content of about 2600s kcal/kg while diets C, E and G contained ME of about 2400, 2300 and 2200 kcal/kg respectively. The calculated crude protein (CP) contents of all diets were similar (17% CP). The results on the performance characteristics studied did not reveal any adverse effect of the two empirical methods of substitution of maize with PCPM in the diets of growing cockerels. The growth rate and feed conversion ration of birds fed on diets containing 50 and 75% of PCPM at the expense of maize using the two substitution methods were similar to those of the control birds. However, there was depression in feed intake at the replacement levels beyond 50%. Thus, it was concluded that the two substitution methods could be used to replace maize with PCPM at the level of 75% of the former without adverse effect on weight gain and feed conversion ratio in the growing cockerels during the early stage of growth.