ABSTRACT

Maize being the major source of energy in poultry diets, constitutes about 60% of broiler diets, and also serves as a major staple food stuff for a good proportion of Nigerians, but its ever increasing demand for human consumption, livestock feeds and industrial use in the country has pushed its market price to an alarming height. This is due to the rising population, high cost of animal feed, political and economic instability, and poor infrastructural development (Nworgu and Fapohunda,2002).it is also a known fact that, in the face of teaming population of the developing nations, the conventional protein and energy ingredients being used in the feed production or livestock represent products that are better taken advantage of in human nutrition(Ardon et al.,1998) resulting to keen competition between man, industries and animals with resultant increase in feed cost and high cost of animal products (Eruvbetine et al.,2002). Therefore, there is the need for exploitation of other energy sources as alternatives to maize, if poultry enterprises in the country is to be sustained. Golian and parsaie (1996) reported that wheat feeding is a good source for broiler feeding and this was supported by Audren et al.(2002). They also confirmed that 75% of wheat in finisher broiler ration has no deleterious reflection on growth rate and feed conversion ratio.