Effectiveness of the technology of rearing of young pheasants for meat up to higher weight categories

Abstract

Recently, pheasant breeding for high-quality meat is gradually moving to the industrial level as the market demand for pheasant meat increases, and the purchase price for it increases. For this reason, there is a need to develop an intensive technology for rearing young birds of this species to higher weight categories. This approach should ensure the production of pheasant for meat with a live weight of more than 1,5 kg with high quality of delicatessen meat raw materials. The purpose of the work was to analyze the eff ectiveness of the proposed technology of rearing for meat to higher weight categories of hunting and crossbreds F1 (♂Romanian×♀Hunting) pheasant cockerels in aviaries (0,4 m2/head) on compound feed with a constantly high content of crude protein (up to 24–25 %) and the same type of corn grain component in recipes (50–55 % by weight). The proposed feeding system for housing young pheasants in aviaries (0,4 m2/head) allowed to obtain at the age of 16 weeks higher weight categories of pheasants of meat productivity: live weight 1551,2±25,09 g, weight of gutted carcass 1228,3±11,85 g, breast 431,0±5,69 g and hind limbs 372,3±7,84 g with a high tasting rating of meat (4,13–4,58 points on a 5-point scale) and the level of profi tability of its production more than 50 %. It was concluded as a result of research that the improved three-phase feeding system to higher weight categories contributes to the increase in the effi ciency of pheasant meat production, and crossbred young animals have the ability to a high level of transformation of feed nutrients into body tissues.