Abstract:
The study was conducted to determine the effect of rice left-over (RLO), golden kuhol meal (GKM), and madre de agua leaf meal (MDALM) on the growth performance of native chickens. Specifically, this study aimed to determine the growth performance of native chicken in terms of gain in weight, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, feed cost to produce a kilogram gain in weight, and on morbidity and mortality rates of native chicken,. This study was conducted at the BSU Experimental area, Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet from March 5 to April 30, 2016.
A total of 40 heads of 23 day-old native chickens were distributed into two treatments following the Completely Randomized Design (CRD). In each treatment, there were four replicates with five birds in each replicate. The T1 - were 75% RLO + 25% GKM and T2 was 68.18% RLO + 22.73% GKM + 9.09% MDALM.
Result of statistical analyses showed no significant differences in all parameters measured which include initial and final weight, total and average daily gain (ADG) in weight, total feed intake, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR).
Over a period of 56-day feeding trial, the birds were able to attain a mean total gain in weight of 94.48g (1.68g ADG), from a mean initial weight of 100.13g at 23 days of age to a final weight of 194.61g at 79 days of age after consuming an average of 1688.06g per head (30.14g/day). The birds had had a mean FCR 17.91 and a mean feed cost to produce kg gain in weight of Php 120.73.
The combination of rice left-over + golden kuhol meal can be used as feed for native chicken however, it is not recommended to be used as sole feed or adapted in complete confinement rearing. The diet can be adapted in semi-confinement rearing where birds can have other supplement in the ranging area.
