Effiong, O.O., University of Calabar, Nigeria; Umoren, U.E., University of Calabar, Nigeria; Akpan, I.A., University of Calabar, Nigeria
The study was designed to determine the optimum replacement level of processed horse eye bean meal (HEBM) for soybean meal (SBM) in the diet of growing cockerel chicks. The raw horse eye beans were cracked, soaked in water for 48 hours, cooked for 90 minutes, rinsed in fresh clean water, sundried, toasted on open fire at 100°C, milled and used for feed formulation. Six experimental (grower mash) diets were formulated, with diet 1 as control, while HEBM was used to replace SBM in the control diet at 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75% for diets 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. One hundred and eighty (180) spotted cockerel chicks at 56 days old were used for the experiment which lasted for 84 days (12 weeks). The chicks were weighed into six (6) of thirty (30) chicks with two replicates of fifteen (15) chicks. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the six experimental diets in a completely randomised design. The result showed that average daily weight gain, average daily feed intake, cost of feed consumed and kg of feed per kg weight gain were statistically (P<0.05) influenced with elevated level of HEBM in the diet. Feed conversion ration and cost/kg of feed were not significantly affected. It was concluded that the cost of production can be reduce by reducing up to 30% of SBM with HEBM in the cockerel's diet. © IDOSI Publications, 2011.