Poultry Feed is the most important aspect of poultry farming.Feed contributes to 80% of the total expence that are there in production of an egg and broiler.Its basicaly a mix of various Grains, De-oiled extractions on Ground nut,Soybean,Rapeseed,& Sunflower, & calciun carbonates.The nutrients that we have to balance while preparing a good feed are ME(Metabolise Energy),Protein,Calcium,Lysine,DL-Methionine and some others.Ingredients that are used in preparing poultry feed are Maize,Bajra,Deoiled Rice Bran,Rice Polish,Jowar,Soybean Meal,Deoiled Ground Nut Extraction,Deoiled Sunflower,Deoiled Rapesead,Fish Meal,Meat & Bone Meal,Shells,Marble Powder,Marble Chips.
The poultry industry relies on a few major ingredients for feed formulation. Cereal grains are the principal sources of energy in poultry diets, whereas grain legumes and oilseed cakes are the main sources of protein. Wheat, barley, triticale and sorghum are the key cereal grains and soybean meal, canola meal, peas, lupine and beans are important protein sources. The industry has always been inclined to use the cheapest ingredients to maximize profit.
Poultry Feed Sector
India is almost self sufficient in all inputs required for producing eggs and chicken meat. Consumption of commercial feed by the poultry sector at present is 28 million tones/year. The poultry industry is highly dependent on the feed industry, which is only 35 years old. The Indian feed industry caters predominantly to the dairy and poultry sector. Manufacture of feeds for other categories of livestock is practically nonexistent. At present, the Indian organized feed industry produces around 3 million tones of feed/year, which is only 5 percent of its actual potential. A substantial quantity of feed is prepared by the farmers themselves in order to reduce the feed cost.
Raw materials
The raw materials that are used for manufacture of poultry feeds are grouped as follows:
1. Cereal and grains: maize, rice, wheat, sorghum, bajra, ragi and other millets, broken rice, germs, middling and damaged wheat that is discarded from the food industry as unfit for human consumption.
2. Cakes or Oil meal: groundnut cake, soybean meal, rapeseed meal, sesame meal, sunflower meal, coconut meal, palm meal are used as protein resources.
3. Feed of animal origin: meat meal, fish meal, squilla meal, hatchery waste and bone meal are used. However, farmers face production problems due to bacterial contamination of fish and meat meal.
4. By-products: rice bran, rice polish, solvent extracted rice and wheat bran, molasses and salseed meal are by-products used in poultry feeds.
5. Minerals and vitamins: poultry feeds are enriched with calcium, phosphorus, trace minerals such as Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, CO and I and vitamins A, D3, E, K and B Complex.
6. Feed additives: additives commonly used are antibiotics (usage not banned in India) prebiotics, probiotics, enzymes, mould inhibitors, toxin binders, anti-coccidial supplements, acidifiers, amino acids, antioxidants, feed flavours, pigments and herbal extract of Indian origin.
Alternative feed ingredients
The use of alternative feed ingredients in poultry diets can be an interesting choice from an economically standpoint. But the nutritional value of the alternative ingredients should be kept in mind. Particularly the presence of anti-nutritive factors. As such ingredients do not always support optimum productivity, they are included in small amounts or efforts are made to improve their nutritive value. Despite these limitations, the use of alternative feed ingredients is increasing due to a variety of factors. Conventional feed ingredients are more expensive and are not readily available to all producers at all locations. Adverse climatic conditions and the use of feed ingredients in the biofuel industry have stimulated the search for alternative feed ingredients for poultry. The biofuel industry generates by-products such as distillers dried grains and solubles (DDGS), that not only need to be disposed of but are becoming core feed ingredients due to the shortage and cost of conventional ingredients. All over the world, but more so in areas experiencing feed shortage, alternative ingredients are investigated with the aim of replacing all or some conventional ingredients. With alternative diets, poultry productivity is often poor due to deficiencies in nutrients such as amino acids and minerals, imbalances in energy to protein ratios or anti-nutritive factors like non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs), polyphenols or phytic acid. Researchers at the University of New England (UNE), Australia, have conducted research in recent years to find out how to improve the quality of those ingredients.
Cassava and cassava by-products
The use of cassava roots and other parts of the plant as an animal feed is traditional in Africa and Asia. Recently, cassava production began on a large scale in northern Queensland to support feedlots. There is a possibility that this industry could diversify into non-ruminant feed production in the future. In Thailand, the third largest producer of cassava, almost all cassava is used for animal feed and starch production. The latter industry yields a fibrous by-product, cassava pulp, which has been used for feeding cattle and pigs.
Replacement for maize
Researchers tested this product as a replacement for maize in diets for layers and established that 15% cassava pulp can be included in layer diets without detrimental effects on egg production and egg quality, except yolk colour, which was paler for diets containing cassava pulp. Supplementation with products with xylanase and phytase activities enabled an increase in cassava pulp inclusion to 20% in diets for layers and maintained egg production at the same level as the maize control diet.
Triticale for poultry
The UNE has conducted research on triticale for several years. A major limitation to increased exploitation of triticale for poultry feeding in Australia is a dearth of published data. The energy value of triticale was assessed as part of a larger project, the Premium Grains for Livestock programme, which included a wide range of grains. Chickens fed triticale-based diets retained more (P<0.05) energy in the form of protein and fat than those fed the wheat based diet. These diets may promote protein accretion and growth on the one hand while increasing meat fat content on the other hand. The results of the study show that the utilisation of energy in triticale is not poorer than that in conventional ingredients such as wheat and maize.
Feed Cost
As feed cost is the key factor in determining the profitability of poultry farming, feed manufacturers as well as farmers attempt to produce least cost rations by including some of the following products, depending upon their cost, availability and nutritive value:
–forest produce (babul seed, rubber seed, tamarind seed, salseed, etc.);
–food industry waste (biscuit waste, coco shell, bread waste, powder, cocoa beans, macaroni waste, skim milk powder, etc.);
–gum and starch industry (guar meal, tapioca, tapioca spent pulp, etc.);
–fruit and vegetable processing waste (citrus wastes, mango waste, tomato pomace, pineapple waste, tea leaves, etc.);
–alcohol industry waste (yeast sludge, grape extractions, breweries’ dried grain, etc.).
Availability of raw materials has increased as the production of food grains and oil seeds in the country have risen over the past few years. The production is estimated to be well over 190 million tonnes for food grains and 16 million tonnes for oil seeds. Increasing domestic production of maize, a major ingredient in poultry feed, is likely to contribute to the reduction of poultry feed prices. The liberalization of feed maize imports will also increase domestic supplies and provide a cushion for domestic production . This will help to avoid possible feed crises such as occurred in 1992, which severely hurt the poultry industry.
Feed concentrate sector is the small and highly volatile supply of quality feed ingredients. Feed manufacturers often face problems of adulteration of feed ingredients, such as when urea and sawdust are added to fish meal. Poor post-harvest handling and storage of feed ingredients result in low quality inputs. Analytical reports based on several thousands of samples spread over five years by a premier feed analytical laboratory (Personal Communication, 2002) situated in the egg laying belt of the country suggest that ground nut cake and maize should be regularly screened for aflatoxin. In these reports, 54.6 percent of maize samples and 99 percent of the ground nut cake tested positive for aflatoxin. The aflatoxin menace was observed both in rainy and non rainy seasons. Concomitant occurrence of other toxins viz. ochratoxin, citrunin were also reported.
Briefly, the poultry industry is growing at a fast pace, which in itself is an indicator of the prevalence of a conducive environment. Along with the poultry industry, the feed industry is keeping pace. Hence most of the research work on animal feed is practical and focuses on the use of by-products, upgrading of ingredients and enhancing productivity in order to reduce production costs. Several innovative ideas have emerged in the trade sector to tackle critical situations.
