Farmers’ Feeding Practices and Growth Performance of Broilers in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of feed composition and feeding frequency on the growth performance of broilers. A total of 96 day-old commercial broiler birds were allotted to two dietary treatments (homemade and commercial feeds) and two feeding frequency treatments (12 hourly and 8 hourly) with 48 birds per diet and feeding frequency and 12 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Data collected on weight was subjected to preliminary exploratory boxplot and normality analyses. The result revealed that birds on the commercial feed had a significantly superior body weight of 2691g and 1441 weight gain, while those on the homemade feed had 2532g body weight and 1282g weight gain. There was a significant difference (P>0.05) in the body weight, weight gain, and water/feed ratio in the birds fed with commercial feed compared to those fed with homemade feed. The overall mean total weight gain in the entire study was 2801.4 ± 40.5. The source of variation on total weight gain was attributable to the effect of twice daily (12-hourly) feeding which recorded 2859.6g in total weight gain, while the thrice daily (8-hourly) had 2743.1g. Feeding frequency was significant (P<0.05) on total weight gain of broilers in this study. The twice daily feeding treatment outperformed the thrice daily treatment. Based on the findings of it was concluded that commercial feed lead to better growth performance compared to home-made feed, and twice daily (12-hourly) feeding treatment had a better impact over the thrice daily (8-hourly) feeding treatment on the parameters studied. It was recommended among other things that farmers should prioritize the use of commercial feed over home-made feed, as it has resulted in better growth rates and feed conversion ratios, and that broiler birds should be fed twice daily (12 hourly) to optimize growth, reduce labour, cost and frequency of disturbance to the birds.