PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMY OF PRODUCTION OF BROILERS FED DRIED CABBAGE LEAF RESIDUES

ABSTRACT

A total of 144 one-day old Arbor Acre broiler chickens(BC) were used to investigate the effect of dried cabbage leaf residues (DCLR) on performance and the economics of production. Four experimental broiler starter diets were formulated which replaced maize at 0% (control, T1), 4% DCLR (T2), 8% DCLR (T3) and 12% DCLR (T4). The birds were randomly allotted to the four treatments having four replicates of nine birds each in a completely randomized design. The results showed that feeding DCLR had no effect (P>0.05) on final weight, body weight gain (BWG), feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the BC. Though numerical increase was observed for the final weights on birds fed the control (1.053g)diet and T2 (1.028g), whileBWG increased for birds fed T4 (0.311g) with an improved FCR (2.415).Cost of feed, cost of feed consumed/bird and cost of production significantly increased (P<0.05) across the treatments. Revenue and gross profit were not significantly (P>0.05) different for all the treatments.  It can be concluded that dried cabbage leaf residue can replace maize up to 12% in practical broiler diet with no loss of revenue and can also mitigate environmental hazards in communities where cabbage residues are abundant.