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With the increase prices of goods and services, logistics and numerous issues of insecurity, the world feed resources are on the verge of rapid decline. These various problems in agriculture, in turns, is the major reasons why animal feeds have become increasingly more expensive.
However, this has led to a search for new, often unconventional feeds, and effective methods of processing presently inedible roughages into more acceptable and nutritious feeds. It is undeniable that agricultural practices in West Africa, consists of small- scale farming. Farmers in Nigeria for example, have in general, low level of agricultural education and at the same time are handicapped by insufficient capital.
Unavailability of capital and increasing cost of energy, purchased feeds, equipment and pharmaceuticals are mainly why a lot of aspiring farmers are not yet going into this line of business.
As a poultry farmer, I know that it is not very easy to start producing poultry feed. There is something called "feed ration".
What Is Feed Ration In Poultry Feed Production?
Feed ration (formulation) involves combining different ingredients in proportions necessary to provide poultry with proper amounts of nutrients needed at a particular growth stage. The ration should be palatable to your poultry/birds and not cause any serious digestive disturbances. Different species of poultry animals have different requirements for energy (carbohydrate and fat), proteins, minerals and vitamins in order to maintain functions like homeostasis, reproduction, egg production, lactation and growth. Feed formulation does not merely involve mathematical calculations but factors such as cost, presence of anti-nutritional factors, texture, moisture, processing, digestibility and acceptability to the animal. One of the most important roles of poultry feed production is to provide high quality protein for birds, and to achieve this, animals should be fed correct proportions of high quality protein.
Broilers are fast growing birds, which mature at 8 to 10 weeks; they are tender-meated with soft, pliable and smooth textured skin depending on feed type and management. A targeted live weight of 1.8 kg is attained at 12 weeks.
Types Of Broiler Feed Rations
There are two types of broiler rations, namely:
* the broiler starter mash - fed from day one to fourth or fifth week, and
* the broiler finisher mash - fed from week 4 or 5 until slaughter.
Today, poultry industries are highly commercial and nutrition is by far the most important single factor accounting for 65-75% of the inputs in the industry. Currently, most poultry are given fat-rich meals which impact negatively on the quality of products and in turn affect humans after consumption. However, poultry farmers have been trying several alternatives of feed formulation to enhance feed quality on meat and egg production. One of the major problems encountered in the Nigeria, especially by small-scale farmers who wish (or are forced by lack of funds) to formulate their own rations is inadequate knowledge of poultry nutrition. When poultry diets are designed using conventional foodstuffs, they follow a fairly predictable pattern and approximate quantities of the various ingredients.
Another handicap for these local small poultry farmers is the inaccessibility of the vitamin and mineral premix and lack of data on the average nutrient content of the many local foodstuffs in the ration .
What Is Vegetable-based Feeds
Vegetable-based feeds are a rich source of essential plant amino acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Further to the rich contents mentioned, it is believed that green vegetable leaves are the cheapest and most abundant source of proteins because of their ability to synthesize amino acids from a wide range of available primary materials such as water, carbon dioxide and atmospheric nitrogen. Also, the effect of vegetable substitute for vitamin pre-mix, lysine and methionine, is great in commercial broiler starters' mash on the fat and protein content of meat production.
Experiment With Vegetable-based Feed On Poultry Birds
An experiment was carried out at the poultry unit of the Department of Agriculture, Babcock University, Ogun State, Nigeria. Fifty day-old chicks were purchased from Joy Veterinary Services and randomly distributed into two groups:
*Control and experimental groups*
The two groups were fed and given water ad libitum throughout the experiment. The control groups were fed commercial broiler starters' mash while the experimental groups were fed vegetable-based formulated feed. Slurry of 10kg of pawpaw and 10kg of banana was made by blending them into pulp of uniform mixture. The slurry was mixed with grounded maize, soya bean cake, groundnut cake, fish meal, palm kernel cake, bone meal, oyster shell and salt (NaCl). The mixture was sun- dried for 48 hours.
Ten (10) kg of pumpkin leaves were also sun-dried for 48 hours and milled together with the dried slurry mixture to form the experimental diet.
It is important to note that there are several methods of feed formulations including:
* the square method,
* simultaneous equation method,
* two- by- two-matrix-method,
* trial- and- error method, and
* linear programming method.
For this study, trial-and-error method of feed formulation was adopted. Birds that were cared for 6 weeks were administered glucose, vitamins and antibiotics on the first day of experiment. Gumboro vaccine was administered on the 7th day while from the 19th to the 20th day of the experiment, the birds were given coccidiostat. Water was given twice daily to the birds only for the last 6 days prior to slaughtering. Six (6) birds were randomly selected from each group and slaughtered.
The study showed live performance of broilers in terms of muscle protein weight and body weight gain.
Vegetable-based feeds are rich sources of essential plant amino acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. In addition to the bioavailability of these essential nutrients, the green vegetables are the cheapest and most abundant source of proteins because of their ability to synthesize amino acids from a wide range of virtually available primary materials such as water, carbon dioxide, and atmospheric nitrogen.
Vegetable-fed birds have higher muscle- protein weight and body weight gain compared to commercial starter mash fed birds. This can enhance a better live performance and feed muscle conversion rate. Feed quality is a major player in the production performance of the poultry birds. So, poultry farmers need to be educated more on the view that vegetable-based broiler feed formulation can enhance the quality of poultry produce in terms of meat production.