Broiler Poultry Feed Basic information.

Poultry Feed cost represents an expense of around 70-85%  of broiler production cost. So proper feed management is key of success to achieve desired results and all basic knowledge needs to be understand deeply.

Types of Poultry Feed.

Broiler Pre – Starter Crumbs/Mash

Broiler Starter Crumbs/Mash

Broiler Finisher Pellets/Mash.

Broiler Concentrate- Mash/ Crumbs/Pallet

Benefits of Crumbs Feed.

Crumbs & Pallet Feed is little roasted and digestibility of Feed become little high & better than mash Feed. Mash feed is a mixture of all feed components but not roasted.I personally highly recommend broiler pre starter feed must be crumbs.

As feed intake of chicks is very less and poultry feed is combination of many complex requirement and crumbs feed can fulfill all necessary requirements of chicks. Crumbs feed provides more nutrition and digestibility  than mash feed to chicks.Crumbs feed is very well combination of every complex requirement of body, but in case of mash feed, chicks some time pick particle of maize ,which has less nutrition and in some cases chick get fine powder , which contains excess nutrition , which is not good for better and equal growth of chicks, but after pre starter you can switch to mash feed depending upon the cost and productivity without any issue.

How many days different types of feed given to birds.

Broiler Pre starter      -1 to 10 days (250 Grams)

Broiler Starter           -11 to 24 days (1050 Grams)

Finisher Feed           -25 Days to up to market selling of broiler –

Or as advised by feed Manufacturer.

The Pre starter or starter feed contains more protein must be given to develop the complete body frame like villai length, strong bone and best nutrition with immunomodulator rather than developing body mass.

Complete Poultry Training – Link

Poultry feed formulation need depth knowledge and many trials based on many parameters such as the energy ,protein,calcium phosphorus,amino acid balance,electrolyte balance and more. depending upon the climate,breed and availability of raw material in the local area,environmental challenges and history of disease outbreaks in last flocks, it is even more challenging to extract the total genetic capability of the birds.

Raw materials are purchased based on price, availability and nutritive value. Nutritive value of raw materials varies from time-to-time, source-to-source and batch-to- batch as per to make competitive and best feed.

Before purchase of raw material.

All raw material for poultry feed must have very good quality and all precautions should be taken before making poultry feed from your end

it needs to be analyzed for quality parameters after collecting a representative sample. For example

If you are planning to use Fish / Fish meal in your poultry feed, take care of the following parameters.

• Moisture (max.): 10.0%
• Sand and silica less than : 5.0% ,Salt less than: 3.0% , Urea level must be Nil ,Bacterial load must be checked before using it.  its Example Each Product you are using as per price and other parameters must have a quality check.

If You are planning to store Maize or Soya ,Always check moisture level .Moisture level is around 13 % or less than 13% is considered best.

Feed ingredients must be fungus free and smell free.

Even the Grain size is also important. Big size of ingredients like maize soya in poultry feed can lead birds to consume/waste extra energy to digest big particles, resulting in high feed intake.It also can lead by pass of ingredients without digestion.

In order to achieve amino acid profile, the other critical amino acids need to be balanced with  the energy and digestible lysine, Methionine ,Threonine & other Amino acids  with calcium,phosphorus ,electrolyte and and other ratio properly.

Never Forget Electrolyte balancing in poultry feed.

Electrolyte balance is represented by Na+K-Cl balance in the poultry Feed to help the Poultry birds from utilizing energy in attempting to do the same in metabolizing the feed.

Electrolyte balance (Na+K-Cl) of poultry feed should be maintained between 200 to 250 mEq per kg of feed.

Chelated trace minerals usage is advisable for better result than simple Trace Minerals.

Inclusion of enzymes is preferable especially in Prestarter and starter Poultry Feed.

Addition of Phytase in some case double dose in the poultry feed formula is useful to generate more energy.

Oils are preferred in poultry .

Vegetable source is preferred over animal source .But animal sources can be used considering  rates and quality.

Palm oil can provide 8300 Kcal/kg and Rice Bran Oil 8500 Kcal/kg but Sunflower oil and Soya bean oil can provide  8800 Kcal energy /kg than Tallow ( 7200-8000 Kcal )and Pig Fat ( 7100-8000 Kcal/kg ) . So take care of This Factor and compare rates and quality.

• An Antioxidant must be used for the oil source to avoid rancidity.

One Common mistake – When You Shift from Pre Starter to Starter or Starter to Finisher than don’t replace immediately.

When replacing Pre starter to  Starter , mix 50 % Prstarter With Starter Feed for 1-2 days & then shift to starter feed. Starter Feed ,

Do Same with Starter and Finisher Poultry Feed.

I personally recommend this. Because when you shift from Pre Starter to starter Poultry Feed & Starter Feed To Finisher feed there will be  immediate change in energy & Protein Value and Immediately change in energy & protein is not good for poultry’s birds , so Slow change in energy & Protein is advisable.

This method  allows the bird to feel stress free.

Precaution- Never shift all Boxes or chicks tray to Feeders immediately .

Example- You are using 10 Boxes or chick trays as feeders & want to replace with another type of feeders according to the age of bird. Don’t remove chick trays as feeders immediately , let the chicks get habitual of new feeders.

After 2-3  days remove all chicks tray or boxes slowly. Our motive is not to shock chicks by immediate  change in feeding system and pattern.It allows the  birds used to of the New Feeding System easily, not immediately.

Moisture content of feed should not exceed 12%-14  %  .
During Feed storage ,Increase in moisture content favors the growth of fungus leading to production of mycotoxin. So it is necessary to keep good quality feed.

Tips While  Making Poultry Feed. 

The increase in energy is best achieved by adding fat (oil) that stimulates feed intake and further improves the palatability of feed. Fat also reduces the rate of passage within the digestive system resulting in less viscosity and better results. So Never compromise with the addition of Oil in Poultry feed.