Performance and economics of production of broiler chickens fed sorghum or millet as replacement for maize in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria

Abstract

The effects of replacing maize with sorghum or millet on the performance and economics of production of broiler chickens were investigated in a 42 – day feeding trial. One hundred and eighty (180) (Anak-2000) broiler chicks weighing averagely 351.7±5.7g were randomly allotted to four experimental diets in which maize (T 1) control, pearl millet (T 2), low tannin sorghum (T 3) and high tannin sorghum (T 4) served as the energy sources in a randomized block design (RBD). Each treatment consisted of 45 birds and three replicates of fifteen chickens each. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences in productive performance among all the treatment groups. The overall weight gains were 1,788.7, 1,862.0, 1,768.7 and 1,578.3g and feed conversion ratio was 2.45, 2.24, 2.88 and 2.94 respectively for T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 . The results, however, indicate that the cost per kg feed and cost of feed per unit weight gain were lowest in millet followed by high-tannin sorghum, low-tannin sorghum and maize-based diets respectively. This suggests that the replacement of maize by these materials would be economical and also cost effective.