Use of Combination of Different Litter Materials on the Performance of Broilers

Abstract

A trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of combinations of three types of litter materials on the performance of broilers. 420 day-old broiler chicks of Cobb 400 strain were randomly allocated into seven groups of 60 birds each with each group having four replicates of 15 birds each for a period of five weeks. The three litter materials soybean husk (SH), jowar husk (JH) and groundnut hulls (GH) were used as Group A having only rice husk (RH) litter as control, Group B reared on RH 50% + SH at 50%, Group C reared on RH 25% + SH at 75%, Group D reared on RH 50% + JH at 50%, Group E reared on RH 25% + JH at 75%, Group F reared on RH 50% + GH at 50% and group G reared on RH 25% + GH at 75%. Group B recorded better live weights, significantly better gain in weights, better feed conversion ratio and better profit margin as compared to the birds reared only on rice husk. Further, group D recorded better productive performance and profit margins as compared to the control group. Moreover, group E recorded significantly better live weights and gain in weights along with comparable feed conversion ratio as compared to the birds from control group. Group E also recorded better profit margins as compared to the birds from control group and other treatment groups.  However, group F, G and group C recorded poor production performance as well as poor profit margins compared to the birds from control group. Thus, the overall results of the study indicated that SH and JH can be used as litter materials by replacing RH upto 50 and 75% levels, respectively. Moreover, the replacement of RH by JH upto 75% level was found to be more beneficial for obtaining better performance and higher profit margins from broilers.