The effect of restricted feeding during the growing period of Kimber White Leghorn pullets on first-year performance and on egg quality

Abstract

Two hundred forty, 10-week-old Kimber S. C. White Leghorn pullets were used to measure the effects of varying levels of feed restrictions from 12 to 22 weeks of age. This experiment had four treatments as follows: Treatment A - full-fed or ad libitum feedings Treatment B - fed 90 percent of Treatment A; Treatment C - fed 80 percent of Treatment A; and Treatment D - fed 70 percent of Treatment A. Feed restrictions with 90, 80 and 70 percent significantly delayed the sexual maturity of the birds by 8.16, 16.66 and 24 days, respectively. Feed restriction produced pullets with lighter body weights and much lower feed consumption. Restriction reduced the cost of feed and produced slightly greater number of bigger eggs. Treatment A gave the highest percentage of lay (54.52%) per bird on monthly hen-day basis, followed by Treatments C, B and D of 53.34, 52.26 and 47.96 percent, respectively. However, based on returns above feed costs, Treatments B and C gave ₱15 and ₱0.09 per bird more than Treatment A, while Treatment A gave ₱0.13 more than Treatment D. This experiment showed that 90 and 80 percent of feed restriction had more beneficial effects on egg production, based on first-year performance, because of lower feed costs during and after feed restriction periods.