The use of ragi in broiler diets
S.W. Yeong and Syed Ali, A.B
Abstract
Two feeding trials involving 550 four-week old commercial broiler chickens were conducted to compare the effect of ragi on their performance.The trials included a preliminary and a second trial with three replicates for each treatment. Five experimental diets with 60% maize as control and four others with 15%, 30%, 45% or 60%, ragi to replace maize directly were fed to the respective groups of chickens in both trials from 5th to 12th week. The results indicated that there was no significant differences in total feed intake, total body weight gain and feed efficiency, although a trend showed that the performance of chicken fed high maize diets were generally better than those fed high ragi diets. This could be due to lower metabolizable energy,in ragi or poorer digestibility of ragi in chickens when fed in the form of whole grain. It was observed that the colour to skin, beak and shank was paler in chickens fed high ragi rations due to the lack of carotenoid in ragi. However, this defect could be remedied by supplementing artificial carotenoid into the diets.
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