PERFORMANCE AND COST-BENEFIT OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF SAMSORG-25 SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor) AS REPLACEMENT FOR WHITE MAIZE

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of broiler chickens to dietary levels of a sorghum variety, samsorgh-25, as replacement for maize. Five diets were formulated in which samsorgh-25 replaced white maize at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels, designated as T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅ respectively. Three hundred (300) two-weeks-old broiler chickens weighing 187.00 – 194.75g were randomly allotted to five diets in replicates of four (4) containing 15 birds each in a Completely Randomized Design. Feed and water were supplied ad libitum for 42 days. The results showed that except for feed conversion ratio (FCR) at the starter and overall phases, no parameter was significantly (P>0.05) affected. At the starter phase, birds fed 100% (T₅) replacement level of samsorgh-25 for white maize had better FCR (1.98), which compared favourably with those on 25 -75% levels (2.12 – 2.23) and did not differ from the control (2.35). The trend was also the same at the overall phase where diet T₅ gave the best FCR which was similar to T₂, T₃ and T₄, while T₁ was the poorest. Feed cost per kg decreased continuously from N460.12 on T₁ to 365.71 on T₅, while feed cost per kg gain was from N1114.21 (T₁) to N802.95 (T₅). Consequently, the highest cost saving of N311.28 was realized on T₅. It was concluded that samsorgh- 25 can completely replace white maize in broiler chicken diets without compromising performance and with a concomitant reduction in feed cost.