Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

The Effect of Replacing Maize with Sorghum on Carcass Characteristics and Economics Feasibility on Commercial Broiler Chicken

Kefyalew Gebeyew, Abdo Mohamed and Mengistu Urge

Background: Maize occupy the largest part in poultry ration, but its availability in the future is under question, because the higher demand to different industrial product, so it is important to find locally available feed which can replace maize either totally or in part. The experiment was conducted with aimed to evaluate replacement of maize by sorghum on carcass characteristics and economic feasibility of feeding different level of sorghum on Hubbard classic broiler chicken. Methodology: Two-hundred forty chicks day-old with initial body weight of 42.5 ± 0.24 g were used for the experiment in complete randomized design. The experiment consisted of 28 days starter phase and 21 days finisher phase. The treatment were T1 (maize based, control), T2 (15% sorghum), T3 (30% sorghum), and T4 (45% sorghum). The experiment lasted for 7 weeks. At the end of the experimental period, 12 broilers from each treatment were randomly selected and slaughtered to evaluate carcass parameters. Results: Significant difference was observed in slaughter weight (P<0.05). Dressed, eviscerated, drumstick, thigh, breast meat weight was lower (P<0.01) for control groups and abdominal fat was not significantly (P>0.05) different between the treatment and the control group. Crop, pro-ventricular, gizzard, small intestine and liver weight was significantly higher (P<0.01). Mortality was not significant (P>0.05) among treatments and the control. The highest net return from cost benefit analysis was seen in T4. Conclusion: From the present study, it can be concluded that replacement of sorghum with maize up to 45% appeared to be biologically better, not having adverse effect on broiler performance and Economic feasible.