Effect of day-old chick weight and gender on the performance of commercial broiler

Abstract

Day-old Vencob commercial broiler chicks 216 (108 males and females each) were weighed and grouped into 3 weight categories; low (L), medium (M) and high (H) and initial weight for male and female chicks were 39,42,45 and 32.5, 36.5, 40.5 g respectively. All the groups were housed in individual floor pens and reared under similar conditions of housing, feeding and management up to 35 days of age. At the end of the experiment, 2 birds from each group were randomly picked up and slaughtered to record various carcass traits. Significant differences occurred in body weight, feed consumption, protein and energy efficiencies due to difference in initial chick weight (ICW) within and between sexes. Heavier ICW broilers maintained their superiority in growth rate till 35 days of age in both the sexes. Flock uniformity of above 90% in males and above 85% in females was possible by segregating them on lCW basis. The proportion ofdrumsticks, thigh and breast increased in the male carcasses with increase in leW but not in the females, however, meat to bone ratio increased in both sexes. The male birds in general had higher evisceration yield and significantly higher yield of drumsticks, thigh and meat to bone ratio than females. The correlation coefficients (r) between ICW and 35 day body weight were 0.73,0.93 and 0.79 for male, female and combined sexes respectively. It was concluded that both ICW and gender influenced the productivity and efficiency of broiler production and were of economic importance to the processor through their effect on yield of premium value products and flock uniformity.