2.4 Broiler Nutrition - T2 Flashcards
What are the market segments for broilers?
- Whole bird
- Cut-up
- Further processed
- Specialty
- “organic”
- free range
- n-3 enriched
- slow growth
What are most modern broiler chickens a cross of? Relevance of white feathers?
White Plymouth Rock X White Cornish
- do not see white pigment in skin when birds are plucked
What are 3 types of meat-type chickens?
- Cornish hen
- whole bird, mkt at young age (def not a hen), female
- good: livability, breeding traits, feed conversion - Broilers
- cut-up, restaurant trade, whole birds
- good: livability, breeding traits, feed conversion - Roaster
- almost always males
- good: livability, growth potential, breast meat, feed conversion ratio
Primary breeding companies each have what?
Different products for different markets
- whole bird vs cut-up vs further processing
- home use vs restaurant vs value added
- slow growth
Within and across companies, products can have different characteristics such as?
- Livability
- Meat yield
- Disease resistance/health/welfare
- Growth profile
- “Best” feeding strategies
Genetics is a big part of the success of broilers, but in combination with what else?
- Nutrition
- Management
- Environment
- Water and feed quality
Allometric growth
- Proportionately more lipid, less muscle protein deposition with age (different nutrient requirements)
- Tissue growth: intestines, feathers, muscle groups, fat
Birds hatch with what kind of gastrointestinal tract?
Birds hatch with an immature gastrointestinal tract
- GIT has a development priority
What are alternatives to anticipate the GIT development?
Early access to feed
- Provide feed in the hatchery trays (mainly during long distances transportation)
- Transition from yolk-based lipid diet to carbohydrate-based solid feed
What are some nutrients that change very little with age? What are some that change substantially with age?
Very little: Na, K, Cl
Substantially:
- Increase = energy
- Decrease = AA, Ca, P
How many phases are common in Alberta broiler production?
3-4
- on farm mixing common on prairies to product mash feed
- in other parts of the world, often more phases fed; geographically concentrated and larger operations
What will feeding programs vary with?
Strain, target BW, sex*
*if sex-separate feeding is used
Feed conversion ratio (FCR) vs. feed efficiency (FE)
FCR (commonly used by industry)
- input (feed intake in g)/ output (body wt gain in g)
- FCR of 1.6 means that chickens gain 1 kg of wt for every 1.6 kg of feed consumed
- the lower the FCR, the more efficient animals are at converting feed into bw
Feed Efficiency (more common in scientific paper)
- the opposite: body wt gain (g)/ feed intake (g)
- the higher the feed efficiency, the more efficient animals are at converting feed into bw
What happens during the grower phase in broiler nutrition?
Proportional growth rate slows
- but still growing rapidly
- bird starts to deposit more lipid
- less efficient stage of growth
What are 2 characteristics of broiler finisher phase diets?
- Pellet (previously crumble)
- Decrease nutrient density
- less protein being deposited, more fat (proportionately); lower efficiency, higher FCR
- withdrawal of medications (if required)
