Sequential feeding of whole grain wheat to broiler chickens

Abstract

Broilers select an adequate diet when they are given a cycle of 8h free access to whole grain wheat followed by 8h access to a pelleted balancer feed (Foote and Rose 1991). This study had 3 feeding trials. Their objectives were to investigate whether the sequential feeding regimen allowed dietary self-selection by broilers and to compare the productive performance of the broilers with other feeding regimens.The first trial used 144 broilers in 24 cages. Three balancer feeds were formulated by removing part of the wheat component of a complete feed formulation. Either 35%, 50% or 65% of the wheat was removed from the original formulation. A fourth sequential feeding treatment used the 50% balancer but with another sample of whole wheat as the alternate feed.