Performance and cost implication of finisher turkeys fed varying levels of rice millingwaste

Abstract

A 28-day experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding varying levels of rice milling waste as a substitute on maize on the performance, nutrient utilization and the economics implication on finisher turkeys. Five turkey finisher diets were formulated by substituting maize with rice milling waste at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. One hundred Grower Turkeys were used for the survey. The birds were randomly allotted to the five treatment diets. Each treatment group of 20 turkeys was replicated 2 times with 10 turkeys per replicate in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were provided ad-libitum. The experiment lasted twenty-eight days. Parameters measured include productive performance, economics of production and efficiency of nutrient utilization. Results obtained showed that substituting maize with 50% rice milling waste produced enhanced performance that was next to the control in terms of mean final weight, mean final weight gain best nutrient utilization and highest benefit while 100% substitution showed the poorest response in all the parameters studied. This result showed that rice-milling waste can be used to the tune of 50% in finishing local turkeys.

 Keywords: Finisher,Turkeys, Performance, Nutrient, Utilization, Production cost, Rice milling waste.