GROWTH PERFORMANCE, APPARENT NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY & ECONOMICS OF FEED CONVERSION OF PULLETS FED MOLASSESFLAVOURED SUNDRIED CASSAVA PEEL AND SHEANUT CAKE BASED DIETS

Abstract

Feeding, accounting for about 70 % of the total expenditure in both animal and fish production, has created a necessity to finding out ways to cut down on production cost, due to competitive usage of grains by man and livestock. The present work evaluated the effect of molasses-flavoured sundried cassava peel (MFSCPM) and molasses-flavoured sheanut cake (MFSNC) based diet on the performance, digestibility and feeding cost of pullets. (The control diet with 0% inclusion level of both MFSNCM and MFSCPM, 10 % MCP was 10% MFCPM inclusion, 20 % MCP was 20% inclusion of MFCPM, 10 % MSN was 10% inclusion of MFSNC and

20 % MSN was 20% inclusion of MFSNC). The MFSCPM and MFSNC groups attained 5% lay at the 4th week which determined the end of the experiment. Data were collected on daily feed intake and weekly weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and energy efficiency ratio (EER) and apparent

nutrient digestibility were all calculated. The results of all the parameters considered, showed that there was significant (P<0.05) difference between treatments in feed intake, weight gain, FCR, cost/kg feed, total cost of feed intake and all the parameters of apparent nutrient digestibility. In conclusion, the study provided valuable insights to using sun-dried cassava peel meal and sheanut cake as alternative feed ingredients in poultry diets.