Effects of Feeding Low Tannin Sorghum Grain to Broiler Chickens

Day-old broiler chicks (n=l 50) were distributed into 15 groups of 10 each. Five dietary treatments viz. maize-soya-fish meal based control diet- D1 and 4 white sorghum based diets were formulated incorporating this grain in diets replacing 25 (D2), 50 (D3), 75 (D4) and 100% (D5) of maize, respectively, at fixed calorie-protein ratio for 0–4 weeks starting and 4–7 weeks finishing periods. The combination of maize and sorghum at any level had statistically similar gain in body weight and feed intake to that of maize based control diet at both the phases (0–4 & 4–7 weeks of age). However, feed conversion ratio was poor (P<0.05) at 100% sorghum-based diet replacing maize completely. The energy and dry matter metabolizability did not differ but nitrogen retention (as % of intake) decreased significantly (P<0.01) when maize was replaced by sorghum beyond 50% level. The blood and feather loss, eviscerated yield and liver yield did not differ due to various dietaery treatments. However, the relative weights of giblet, gizzard and heart differed significantly (P<0.05) because of various dietary treatments. The cost of production was relatively less on replacement of 75% maize by sorghum. It was concluded that white sorghum variety having low tannin could be incorporated replacing about 75% of maize in soybean meal based broiler diets.