Optimization of Dietary Protein Level Through Amino Acids Balancing on Performance and Economics of Commercial Broiler Chicken Production

Abstract

An on-farm feeding trial was undertaken to test the response of commercial broiler chicks in tropical climate for reduction of dietary crude protein during all stages of growth. The objective of this study was to determine whether a reduced CP and AA balanced diet could reduce feed cost and increase farm revenue without sacrificing the performance in commercial broilers. A total of 2000 day old VenCobb400 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to two dietary treatments with 8 replicates each having 125 birds. A feeding trial of 42
days duration was undertaken in open house by feeding practical cornsoy all vegetable protein diet in mash form. All the diets at pre-starter, starter, grower and finisher stages were formulated with approximately 0.5% lower CP than in vogue standard practical diets to be fed to the birds in control group. The CP was further reduced in treatment groups of grower and finisher rations by 0.32 and 0.36%. The performance of birds in both the groups was at par indicating no adverse effect due to reduced soybean meal in treatment group. The reduction in soybean content in the grower and finisher diets of the treatment group resulted in lesser cost by ` 230 and ` 312 per tonne. There was increased return of ` 1.69/- per bird in treatment group. It was concluded that optimization of CP in the diet of commercial broilers through provision of supplementary amino acids could enhance profits of broiler rearers.