Philippine E-Journals

EFFECT OF HIGH QUALITY CORN DISTILLER'S DRIED GRAINS WITH SOLUBLES ON THE PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE OF LAYERS

Karen Joy M. Alejandro | Carmencita D. Mateo | Jezie A. Acorda

Discipline: Agriculture

 

Abstract:

A 10-week on-farm feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the performance and egg quality of laying hens fed corn-soybean meal based diets with graded levels (0, 5, 10, and 15%) of high quality corn distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). One hundred and twenty (120) 36-week old Hyline layers were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments with ten replicates per treatment at three birds per replicate cage using a completely randomized design. No significant differences in egg production, average feed consumption, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, feed efficiency and egg shell thickness were observed between layers fed corn-soybean meal based diet with graded levels of corn DDGS and birds fed diets with 0% corn DDGS. Egg production and feed conversion ratio were found to be 3% and 5% higher, egg mass was 2% and 4% heavier and 6% and 7% more feed efficient in birds fed corn-soybean meal based diets with 5% and 15% corn DDGS inclusion (P<0.05) compared to 0% DDGS. Performance of birds fed corn-soybean meal based diet with 10% corn DDGS was similar to the performance of birds fed diet with 0% corn DDGS. Inclusion of 5 to 15% corn DDGS in layer diets significantly improved yolk color score as early as the fourth week of the experiment. The intensity of the yolk color increased (P<0.05) with increasing levels of corn DDGS. The 15% corn DDGS inclusion gave 20% darker egg yolk (P<0.05) than the 0% corn DDGS group. The results suggest that high quality corn DDGS can be fed to layers at a level as high as 15% in corn-soybean meal based diet without negative effect on production performance and egg quality.