ABSTRACT

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the productive and economic performance of Broiler chickens ted varying plants protein sources in sorghum based diets. One hundred and twenty (120) seven day — old Anak broiler chicks were individually weighed and randomly placed in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) experiment in which groundnut cake (GNC), Soyabean meal (SBM), soyabean cake (SBC) and cashew nut meal (CNM), each was included at 30% level with sorghum as the main energy source. Each treatment was further sub-divided into 3 replicates of 10 chicks and they were all managed in a deep litter house with all standard routine management practices strictly observed. Data on growth parameter and feed intake were collected on daily and weekly basis. The experiment lasted 49 days, and at the end, measurements were taken lor the determination of productive performance and economics of production. The results obtained from the measurements showed that birds fed cashew nut meal (CNM) based diets had the highest net gain per bird (N), which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than those fed GNC, SBM and SBC. However, results ofresponse criteria such as the mean final weight, mean total weight gain, mean total feed intake and feed-to-gain ratio showed significant differences (P<0.05) with birds fed Diet 3 giving the best (mean final weight gain, 2280.00g; mean total weight gain, 2140.27g; mean total feed intake, 4742.62; and feed-to-gain ratio, 2.22) values. It was closely followed by the birds fed Diet 2, then birds fed Diet 1. However, birds fed Diet 4 (CNM) gave the poorest and least favoured values in all the response criteria. In conclusion, birds fed Diet 3 gave the best performance, followed by those on Diet 2. This is a confirmation ofthe fact that soyabean (used as meal or full fat) is superior to groundnut cake and cashew nut meal when included in broiler ration as plant protein source.