Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance and economics of broiler chickens fed different dietary energy sources. Five diets containing maize, red sorghum, white sorghum, Gero millet and Dauro millet were formulated and coded diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively. Two hundred and ten day old Marshall Breed of broiler chicks were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design and each treatment was replicated three times. Feed and water were provided ad libitum and the feeding trial lasted for eight weeks. At the starter phase, daily feed intake (33.05-47.52 g; p<0.05), daily weight gain (9.74-19.43 g; p<0.001) and feed conversion ratio (2.46-3.43; p<0.05) were affected by the dietary treatments. At the finisher phase daily weight gain (27.20-45.80 g) was significantly (p<0.001) influenced while daily feed intake and feed conversion did not differ significantly. The best feed cost in naira per kilogram body gain was obtained on diet 4 (Gero millet) with a value of