The Effect of Restricted Feeding of Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys During the Holding Period on Subsequent Reproductive Performance

Abstract

THE restriction of the amount of feed or of the caloric intake of chicken hens prior to the laying season has been a popular topic in recent years, especially for meat-type breeder chickens. Producers of some strains of meat-type chickens are of the opinion that some method of retricting growth is essential for success with these birds. The turkey is also a meat-type bird, kept exclusively for the production of hatching eggs, and very little information is available on the effects of restricted feeding of turkeys on subsequent reproductive performance. Scott and Payne (1941) compared the reproductive performance of a group of Broad Breasted Bronze breeder turkeys on full-feed, with similar groups receiving 61% and 78% as much feed during the non-laying period, and with free access to feed thereafter. Such a period of restricted feed intake followed by a period of full-feeding enabled turkey breeders to gain weight during …