Studies on Energy Levels in Poultry Rations

Abstract

INTRODUCTION GROWTH rate feed consumption, body composition and feathering of broiler chickens have been shown to be influenced by the ratio of energy to protein content of the ration (Baldini and Rosenberg, 1955; Combs and Romoser, 1955; Combs et al., 1955a, b; Donaldson et al., 1955, 1956; Leong et al., 1955; Matterson et al., 1955; Scott et al., 1955; and Sunde, 1956). More recently, similar observations have been made in studies with turkey rations. Lockhart and Thayer (1955) reported that poults grew best when fed a starting ration having a Calorie-protein ration4 of 29:1. Ferguson et al. (1956a) in dicated that the optimum Calorie-protein ratio for the turkey poult to eight weeks of age was between 25 and 31:1. In close agreement with this work is that of Atkinson et al. (1956) which indicates that up to eight weeks, the poult requires a protein level of 30 to 32% with . . .