PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF SICKLE POD (CASSIA TORA) AND SUNFLOWER SEED MEAL

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the performance and economic benefits of broiler chicken production using sickle pod seed (cassia tora) and sunflower seed meals based diets. Five diets each for both starter (23% CP) and finisher (20% CP) were formulated in which Cassia tora meal replaced sunflower meal at 0, 20, 30, 40 and 50% levels coded as diets A, B, C, D and E respectively. Three hundred (300) day old broiler chicks were randomly allocated to the five diets in four replicates of fifteen birds each. The experimental diets and water were supplied to the birds ad libitum and the research lasted for seven weeks. Daily feed intake and body weight changes were taken across the replicates on daily and weekly basis respectively. The result indicted that only final weight was significantly (P<0.001) affected by the dietary levels of Cassia tora. At the starter phase, daily feed intake (71.57 – 85.44g), daily weight gain (17.11 - 24.17g) and feed conversion ratio (3.32 - 3.88) were not influenced by the dietary treatments. At the finisher phase however, daily feed intake (106.91-135.50g) and feed conversion ratio (2.70-4.27) were significantly (P<0.001) affected by the levels of Cassia tora in the diets whereas no significant difference was found on daily weight gain (30.81-43.26), The overall phase showed significant difference (P<0.001) for feed conversion ratio with values ranging between 3.06-4.08 on diets 3 and 4 respectively. It was concluded that sickle pod (Cassia tora) seed meal can replace sunflower seed meal at 30% level in the diets of broiler chickens with no detrimental effects on growth performance with economic advantage in reducing feed cost by 17.71%. Therefore, 30% of sickle pod seed meal is recommended for use in broiler chicken diets.