Effect of utilization of raw pigeon pea ground (Cajanus cajan (L.)Millsp) on hens performance.

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Paraná, Brazil, with the objective of evaluating the utilization of crude pigeon pea meal (RPPG) on hens feeding. 33 week - old 240 hens were used in as experiment with 5 treatments in randomized blocks, repeated four times, and the experimental units were composed by 12 hens. The treatments consisted of four different experimental rations, containing 10% (T1), 20% (T2), 30% (T3) and 40% (T4) of RPPG and a control ration (TO) composed of corn and soybean ration. The rations were balanced to contain 14,5% of crude protein (CP) and 2900 Kcal of ME/kg. The characteristics such as: number of eggs (NE), mean weight of eggs (MWE), egg mass (EM), ration consumption (RC) and feeding efficiency (DFE=egg mass/ration consumption; IFE1 = egg mass/mean body weight and IFE2 = egg mass/(mean body weight) 0.75 were evaluated during the experimental period of 8 weeks. A quadratic effect of the treatments (P<0.01) was observed on NE, EM, DFE, IFE1 and IFE2, with the best efficiency average for T1. MWE and RC were not significantly affected by the differences among the treatments. The results show that RPPG can be used up to the level of 10% in ration composition.