Feeding Strategy to Reduce the Cost of Feeding in Backyard Poultry

Abstract

The present study was conducted to reduce the cost of feeding in laying hens by mixing easily available feed ingredients with a commercial layer mash so that the cost of egg production can be reduced and, in turn margin of profit increased. A complete layer mash purchased from the local market, costing Rs. 20/kg, was used as the control diet (T1). This diet (T1) was replaced with 10, 20, 30, and 40 per cent each of broken rice at the time of feeding daily. Thus, a total of 5 experimental diets were prepared as T1 (control), T2 (T1+10 % broken rice), T3 (T1+ 20 % broken rice), T4 (T1+ 30% broken rice) and T5 (T1+ 40% broken rice). All 5 experimental diets were fed to 5 groups of layers with 20 hens in each group. Thus, a total of 100laying hens were used for this experiment. All the birds were housed in individual cages and fed individually for a period of 90 days during the months of July to September 2007. The results revealed that feeding cost per hen during 3 m period came out to be Rs.180, Rs.171, Rs.162, Rs.153 and Rs.144 in groups T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively and there was a saving of Rs.9, Rs. 18, Rs. 27, and Rs. 36 per hen in groups T2, T3, T4 and T5 as compared to T1 when diet was mixed 10, 20, 30, and 40 per cent each of broken rice. Therefore, this strategy can be helpful during the period when there is a very high feed cost and low egg price in order to save expenditure on the feeding of hens. On the other hand, when the net profit was calculated, it was found that the maximum profit was in the control group (T1), followed by T2, T3, T4 and T5. The reduction in net profit was due to a smaller number of eggs laid by birds of T2, T3, T4 and T5 groups. From this study, it was concluded that the inclusion of 10% of broken rice in the diet may be followed, since there was not much difference in the profit compared to the control