The effects of ration pelleting and level of fat on the efficiency of nutrient utilisation by the chicken

Synopsis

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding rations in the form of mash, pellets or ground pellets on the performance of the broiler chicken when the ration contained varying levels of fat.

When a low‐fat ration was fed, chicks consuming pellets or ground pellets gained more body weight, consumed more food and utilised food more efficiently than chicks fed mash. Concurrently, feeding of this ration as pellets or ground pellets increased the quantitative gain in carcass dry matter, fat and gross energy. These increases were accompanied by an improved efficiency of metabolisable energy utilisation. The response of chicks to feeding the low‐fat ration in the form of ground pellets indicates that the pelleting process per se caused a change in the ration constituents which improved efficiency of energy utilisation and increased weight gain. The observation that the performance of pellet‐fed chicks surpassed that of chicks fed ground pellets suggests that feeding pellets was inducing a response beyond that which could be attributed to the beneficial effects of the pelleting process per se. In general, increasing the fat level by 10 per cent of the ration decreased the chicks’ response to pelleting although, in the case of efficiency of energy utilisation, the beneficial influence of pelleting was still apparent.