OPTIMIZATION OF PROTEIN AND ENERGY REQUIREMENT FOR BROILERS REARED UNDER OPEN SIDED HOUSING SYSTEM IN COLD WEATHER CONDITION

One biological experiment was conducted to optimize the protein and energy for the commercial broilers reared under open sided housing system. The experiment was conducted by feeding different levels of protein (20%, 21% and 22% in broiler pre-starter feed, 21%, 22% and 23% in broiler starter feed and 19%, 20% and 21% in broiler finisher feed) and metabolised energy (2900, 3000 and 3100k.cal/kg in broiler pre-starter feed, 2800, 2900 and 3000k.cal/kg in broiler starter feed and 3000, 3100 and 3200 k.cal./kg in broiler finisher feed) to the commercial broilers for five weeks period to assess the production performance and cost effectiveness. Based upon the results in the experiment the optimum protein and energy requirements were studied. The biological experiment was accomplished with one hundred sex-separated day old commercial broiler chicks (cobb 400) belongs to the single hatch. The chicks were leg banded, weighed and allotted randomly into nine treatment groups with ten replicates in open sided housing system. All chicks were reared upto five weeks of age in standard management cold weather condition. During this period of study of an experiment, data on body weight and feed consumption were recorded at weekly interval. From the above data, body weight, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio was calculated. The result of this experiment shows that the protein and energy content of the diet had significantly influenced in the body weight gain feed consumption and feed consumption ratio in cold weather condition in the commercial broiler, and also the feeding plans in this study had significantly influenced the feed consumption, feed consumption ratio and body weight gain. The cost of production and net profit were calculated as per the results in each and every treatment groups and the net profit per broiler was highest in treatment group (T3) fed with -21% of C.P and 3000 k.cal/kg of M.E. in the finisher diet. Based upon the result in an open sided housing system in cold weather condition by provision of 1% higher protein than the standard recommended level and with 100 k.cal/kg feed low energy than the recommended level give better production performance and profit margins.