The Value of Corn Versus Fat and Wheat Bran in a Practical Broiler Ration Compared to Their Predicted Energy Values

Abstract

THE addition of fibrous materials, in moderate amounts, to chick diets results in increased feed consumption sufficient to maintain or increase rate of growth (Wilcke and Hammond, 1940; Davis and Briggs, 1947; Peterson et al., 1954; Hill and Dansky, 1954). Since the initiation of this present study, Fisher and Weiss (1956) reported fiber per se to stimulate consumption of cerelose diets formulated to be isocaloric, and as a result, feed efficiency was increased as well as growth rate. In experiments conducted by Mraz et al. (1956,1957), in which large amounts of inert materials such as sand, vermiculite and Solka Floc were used, the energy: volume ratio of the diets was a better criterion of the growth promoting quality of a diet than its density, productive energy: weight ratio or fiber content. More recently Richardson et al. (1958) found a high correlation between productive energy content of a diet and feed …