The effect of source of forage and level on feed intake and diet digestibility in redbros
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Date
2013-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
In recent years there has been increased consumer demand for “free range” or “pasture reared” poultry. A popular strain used for pasture rearing is called a “RedBro” and this strain was used in Experiment 1 and both the RedBro and commercial broilers were compared in Experiment 2. There is a perception that pasture can provide a significant proportion of the daily dietary needs of poultry but there is little published literature on how forage type and level will influence feed intake or forage utilization. The objective of the current study, therefore, was to determine how different forage sources and levels would influence feed intake and forage digestibility. The forage sources were dried ground alfalfa leaves, dried ground orchard grass hay, and dry ground alfalfa from bales. The four levels of dietary inclusion were 0% (basal corn/soy diet) or the basal supplemented with 5%, 10%, or 15% of each forage source. There was increased feed intake with increasing levels of forage inclusion. Excreta neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) concentrations increased with increasing forage intake and a corresponding decrease in total tract diet digestibility.
Description
Honorable mention in the Denman
Keywords
Poultry, Forage, Redbro, Digestibility, Neutral Detergent Fiber, Acid Detergent Fiber