Feed selection by local and exotic chickens scavenging on pasture and with free access to broken rice and soya bean meal

Pham Tan Nha

Cantho University
Vietnam
ptnha@ctu.edu.vn

Introduction

Traditional chicken production is still important in the tropics. Although commercial chickens are raised widely, the local chickens are becoming more popular due to the fact that they can withstand the harsh climatic conditions. Also they are easy to rear, find their feed, and can utilize available feed resources such as grass and insects on pasture. The live weigh gain of exotic chickens is faster than local chicken but local chicken are better able to obtain nutrients from scavenging than exotic breeds. Local chicken will spend more time scavenging than chicken of exotic breeds and will consume less protein and more energy from the supplement. 

Hypothesis

• Local chicken will spend more time scavenging than chicken of exotic breeds and will consume less protein and more energy from the supplement

Objectives

• The aim is to study feed selection by local and exotic chickens scavenging on pasture and with free access to broken rice and soya bean meal during the night-time.
   

Materials and methods

Treatments

There are two treatments arranged in a randomized design with 5 chicken per treatment and 4 replications. The treatments are source of chicken:

• Local chickens

• Exotic chickens

The allocation of treatments is hown below:

	Pen 1	Pen 2	Pen 3	Pen 4	Pen 5	Pen 6	Pen 7	Pen 8
Block	1		2		3		4
Exotic chickens	5			5	5		5
Local chickens		5	5			5		5
Broken rice	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free
Soya bean meal	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free

Location

The experiment will be carried out at Livestock Research Center, Nam Xuang province, Laos.

Procedure

The experimental period will be 30 days.  The chickens (40 chickens) scavenge on pasture as one group during the daytime (until 4pm) after which they are housed in separate pens according to treatment / replicate and given free access to broken rice and soya bean meal in separate feeders.

Measurements

The time spent scavenging will be measured for each chicken every 5 days. Chickens are identified with coloured plastic in the wings. They are weighed at 5 day intervals. Feed consumed and refused is determined daily.

After 30 days the bird are slaughtered at 4pm to determine contents of the crop. The contents of the crop are weighed and analysed for DM and N. DM is determined by micro-radiation (Undersander et al 1993) and N according to AOAC (1990).

Statistical analysis

The data will be analysed using the General Linear Model option of the ANOVA programme in the Minitab (version 13.2) software. Sources of variation are: Source of chicken, blocks and error.

References

AOAC 1990 Official Methods of Analysis. Association of Official Analytical Chemists. 15th edition (K Helrick, editor). Arlington pp 1230.

Undersander D, Mertens D R and Lewis B A 1993  Forage analysis procedures. National Forage Testing Association. Omaha pp 154