Vol. 11, Special Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
K Selvarasu and V Ramesh

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted in commercial broiler chicks (Vencobb) for a period of six weeks to study the dietary supplementation of skim milk powder with respect to body weight and cumulative feed consumption at sixth week, total feed cost per bird, total cost of production per kg live weight, total income per bird, net profit per kg live weight, and net profit per bird Rs. These broiler chicks were weighed and randomly allotted into five treatment groups with four replicates of ten chicks each and fed with basal diet as T₁ (control), T₂ (basal diet + 0.25 per cent skim milk powder), T₃ (basal diet + 0.5 per cent skim milk powder), T₄ (basal diet + 0.75 per cent skim milk powder) and T₅ (basal diet + 1.00 per cent skim milk powder) at starter and finisher phase. The dietary skim milk powder supplementation in broiler diet on body weight and cumulative feed consumption revealed significant (P< 0.05) difference between treatment groups at sixth weeks of age. The T₂ group (basal diet + 0.25 per cent skim milk powder) recorded the lowest production cost per kg live weight (Rs 63.31) and highest net profit per kg live weight (Rs 21.69) and net profit per bird (Rs 41.92). Based upon this study, it is concluded that supplementation of skim milk powder in broiler basal diet at the level of 0.25 per cent (T₂ group) increased net profit per kg live weight and net profit per bird in a cos effective way.