Poul 3030 Broiler Project

Our poultry 3030 class had to perform a class experiment that was growing broiler birds out for 6 weeks. Throughout this trial we tested different hypothesis to see how industry performs or how industry could change something to improve there success rate. The first objective tested was lighting and how it affects broilers, the second was stocking density and how it affects them socially and nutritionally, and third we reared birds by separate sexes to see the difference in the weight gain between male and female birds.

The first hypothesis tested was lighting, light is a crucial key to success when performing a grow out and it has a “hand” that is involved in every aspect. It affects the bird and their activity level, which can correlate to feed intake and mortality. It also determines how much the electricity bill is and saving on utilities maximizes the profit for the contract farmer. The more light intensity and longer light duration given to birds, the more active there will be and the more feed consumed. During the brooding stage these birds receive 23 hours of daylight for the first 5 days to make sure they eat well and get a good start in life. Then after that you put them on a schedule of gradual light loss and it helps the bird from not gaining too much weight and it saves on the feed bill. We was suppose to have a “dim” side of the house that received 10 lux of light versus a bright side of the house that received 30 lux of light to show us just how light directly affected feed intake and weight gain throughout a trial but the house was set up wrong so we did not gain the results expected. We expected to see birds on the bright side out-gain the birds on the dim side by a landslide and for the bright birds to have all better FCR but that wasn’t the case due to the setup error of the test house.

The second hypothesis tested was stocking density of broilers. We had to different stocking density throughout the trial and the lower stocked pens held 12 birds and the higher stocked pens held 24 birds. Stocking density is an ongoing battle between industry and animal rights groups. Broilers might seem to be overstocked when full grown but actually there not, birds only need 1 sq ft for themselves. One factor observed to show birds was in fact a social animal and did not need anymore room together is in our lower stocked pens that only contained 12 birds was still a full pen size is that the birds was always congregated together , they was always together in a pen because birds are social animals and like interactions. We also looked at weight gain in the birds comparing heavy and lighter stocked pens. Obviously the heavier stocked pens with 24 birds outweighed the lower stocked pen with 12 birds, but on the individual weight gain per bird the lower stocked pens outperformed the birds in the heavier stocked pens. There was two negative factors associated with the heavier stocked pens that was discovered, first, there in the heavier stocked pens there was a pecking order established which means the heavier birds clung to the feeders and would bully the smaller birds when they tried to eat which made it harder on the smaller birds. Second problem observed was the amount of “caking “ of the litter and this problem will affect the birds to high levels of ammonia from hock burns and breast lesions all the way to slow weight gain and losing money at the plant on bird condemns.

The third hypothesis tested was raising of the sexes in separate cages to see if it was enough difference for industry to start doing straight run flocks. In industry they do not take the time or the money to separate these birds at the hatchery that they send to grow out barns because they think in 6-9 weeks you will not see a large enough weight gain difference to matter. So we separated our birds into two setups with males versus females to see if we noted any extra weight gain and the difference in sexual maturity. The males at the end of the 6 week grow out had started developing a comb and a wattle where the females had really showed no signs of sexual maturity at the moment. As expected the male birds did out-gain the females in pen weight and individual weight. The weight gain difference was notable but not enough to interest industry in raising straight run flocks. The only advantage to a straight run flock is that roosters could hit a heavier target weight quicker than a hen which would mean less feed and time to get the males to the processing plant where our profit is made.

The three hypothesis tested during this experiment was light intensity , stocking density and separate sex raising and all these tested good except our light intensity data was null do to the fact of the wrong setup of the test house. This experiment show me and my class what happens in industry and exactly what we are getting into rather than just reading it out of a textbook. This experiment took us beyond the classroom and showed us what the poultry industry was like and showed us what it is like to work on the live production side. I was not raised around poultry and had no poultry experience until I started here at Auburn University so this personally prepared me for the industry and will make me a more valuable employee to the industry in the future.