Performance of farmer managed Bovans Brown layers fed on different locally available rations

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feed supplementation on feed intake, body weight change, feed conversion efficiency, egg production, morbidity, mortality, egg quality and profitability of Bovans Brown layers for 90 feeding trial days under farmers management. Randomized Complete Block Design was used with 4 treatments and 5 replications each. A total of 100 Bovans Brown layer with uniform Body weight and age were blocked randomly into 20 farmers 5 bird per farmer and were allocated randomly in to one of the 4 dietary treatments. Locally available feed resources (maize, nouge cake, sesame meal, limestone and salt) were used to formulate the experimental diets. The CP and ME content of treatment rations ranged 12.5- 16.87% and 2245-2909.51kcal/ kg DM, respectively. The amount of feed consumed was determined by obtaining the difference between the quantity feed offered and the quantity feed remaining on the feed trough. Body weight of the birds was measured at the beginning and end of the study. Egg quality traits were determined six times during the study period by taking three eggs from each farmer per two week. The result from the analysis of variance shows that, DFI % of the treatment rations (0, 96.425, 97.575 and 97.301 (SEM=9.646)); BWG (g/bird) (32.0, 56.8, 62.0 and 61.6 (SEM=3.538)); HDEP (%) (49.244, 56.668, 60.356 and 58.74 (SEM=1.006)); HHEP (%) (49.244, 56.668, 60.356 and 57.51) (SEM=0.971)); egg weight (g) (55.3, 56.1,56.2, and 56.3 (SEM=0.102));egg mass(g/hen/day (27.26,31.37,32.07and 33.07(SEM=0.527)); FCE(g of eggs/g of feed ( 0.00, 0.972,1.096 and 1.08 (SEM=0.105)); Mortality by predator (% ) (0,0,0 and 8 (SEM=2)); Shell weight (g) (4.908,5.312,5.354,5.35(SEM=0.055)) and shell thickness(mm) (0.368, 0.388, 0.398 and 0.386 (SEM=0.004)) were analyzed for T1, T2, T3, and T4 , respectively. The result shows production performance and egg quality traits except Albumen quality and yolk colour were affected by feed supplementation .The partial budget analysis of the birds in T1, T2, T3 and T4 was calculated as 3324.00, 3385.68, 3499.00 and 3427.35 net return in Ethiopian birr respectively ; indicated that net return increased as the level of dietary protein and dietary energy increased because these nutrients improved the production performance and egg quality traits of hens. Therefore, it is concluded and recommend that feed with comparatively higher 16.87% CP and slightly lower 2752 kcal/kg ME diet could be better for BB layers under farmer’s condition. Protein-rich feeds are expensive .Hence; future research should focus on the possibility of using cheap conventional and non-conventional protein-rich feed resources as feed supplement for scavenging chicken. The egg quality from Bovans Brown layers was a good quality at village level, while the average number of eggs/bird/year may need further study through considering the amount of feed provided by the farmers and scavenging feed resources on that area by crop analysis.