Grass meal as an ingredient in diets for broiler chickens

Abstract

1. Six diets of equal energy and nitrogen contents containing between 0 (control) and 125 g grass meal/kg were each fed to 4 groups of 42 male and 4 groups of 42 female broiler chicks, in floor pens, from 0 to 56 d of age.

2. Increments of 25 g grass meal/kg and 7.3 g maize oil/kg replaced a mixture of soyabean, wheat and barley meals in the control diet.

3. Gain: food ratio (y) of the birds decreased linearly as dietary grass meal content (x) increased such that y = 0.4295 − 0.0032x.

4. Carcass analyses indicated that the decrease in gain : food ratio was caused by less deposition of body fat.

5. Skin colour became significantly yellower as the dietary grass meal content increased.