Critical Amino Acid and Energy Balancing to Address MaizeGrade Variation in Broiler Performance

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of maize grade variationin broiler performance. A total of 189 Cobb 500 broilers were randomly andevenly assigned to three dietary treatments having three replications of 21 birds each. The treatments were: T₀ (feed formulated with grade-A maize), T1 (feed formulated with grade-B maize, with Metabolizable Energy (ME) deficiencies compensated by additional Soybean Oil (SO)), and T2 (feed formulated with grade-B maize, where deficiencies in Critical Amino Acids (CAA) and ME were addressed with supplemental CAA, SO, multi-enzyme,and toxin binder). Results showed that T1 exhibited 13.1 Bangladesh Taka (BDT) higher (p>0.5) profit margins per bird along with higher (p>0.05) final body weight, feed and water intake, and flock uniformity compared toT0. Additionally, T1 had a numerically lower (p>0.05) production cost and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR). However, differences in feed intake and FCRbetween T1 and T0 were significant (p<0.05) only during days 15-21. The performance metrics, including total production cost and profit margin in T2, were intermediate between those of T0 and T1. The overall results indicatedthat the broiler feed made with B-grade maize, when properly supplementedto compensate for nutritional deficiencies, can perform parallelly or evenbetter than the feed made with A-grade maize in terms of productions and profitability. This was especially evident in the formulation approach used inT1. However, its practical application depends on cost of producing feedwith different grades of maize, as well as the selling prices of the birds.