EVALUATION OF TURKEY BROILER FEEDING PROGRAMS BY BIOLOGICAL ASSAY AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

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Abstract
Five commercial and two experimental turkey broiler feeding programs were compared with a control program by feeding from day-old to market weight (5.0-kg males). The performance of the poults fed the commercial feeds varied widely in rate of growth, feed consumption, feed conversion, carcass grade and cost of meat production. Carcass composition was not greatly influenced by the feeding program, but the eviscerated carcass yield of birds requiring an extended growing period was reduced. An experimental program of progressively increasing nutrient density produced well-finished broilers at 89 days of age with improved feed consumption and conversion over the controls. Another experimental program in which the diets included dehydrated alfalfa, dried brewer’s yeast and partly delactosed whey gave no advantage over the wheat–soybean–meat meal diets of the control program. Chemical analysis of the registered commercial feeds revealed little relationship between the actual and guaranteed analyses except for crude protein. Differences in crude protein and amino acid contents accounted for part of the observed variation in early growth.

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