COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF COBB 500 BROILERS FED DIETS BASED ON TWO SORGHUM bicolor CULTIVARS IN BOTSWANA

Abstract

A study was conducted to compare the performance of broiler birds fed diets made of two sorghum cultivars with that of birds fed commercial maize based diet in Botswana. Two hundred and ten, Cobb 500 day old broiler birds with initial body weight of 45 g were randomly allocated equally to three treatment diets (commercial, Segaolane and Phofu) according to a complete random block design. Each treatment was replicated twice. The period lasted for five weeks in which chicks, feed intake and feed refusals were weighed weekly. Feed intake of broiler chicks fed commercial diets of 5087.6±SE g was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of birds fed Segaolane (4830.0SE g) and Phofu (4818.3SE g) diets, which did not differ significantly from each other. A similar trend was observed in the feed efficiency of the broiler birds used in this study, 1.13SE, 1.76SE and 1.97SE g/g for commercial, Segaolane and Phofu diets, respectively. Broiler birds fed commercial diets (1918.43SE g) had a significantly higher cumulative weight gain compared to those broiler birds fed sorghum based diets (1344.3SE and 1186.0SE g). However, the performance of broiler birds fed the two sorghum based diets was not significantly different from each other (P > 0.05). The two sorghum cultivars reduced feed intake, feed efficiency and weight gain of broiler birds. They also had similar nutritive value and effects on broiler birds; therefore, they could be included in poultry feeds and may have fewer adverse effects on broiler birds’ performance since no mortalities were recorded. Since the sorghum diets used in the study were all-mash, there might have been an influence of particle size and texture on the performance of broiler birds, hence there is need to pellet these diets so that the influence of particle size and texture could be removed.