Effect of Replacing Maize with Bajra (Pearl Millet) on the Performance of Broilers

In the Corn Soya based diet the effect of quantitatively replacing 0 (T1), 25(T2), 50(T3), per cent of dietary maize with bajra (pearl millet) was investigated for broilers. Each one of the three diets was offered as much ad libitum to two replicates (25 birds per replicate), the growth performance of broiler birds during 0-42 days of age was studied. The chicks under T3 group grew significantly faster (P < 0.01) than T1 and T2 group and Chicks under T2 grew significantly faster (P < 0.01) than T1 group. It was observed that the feed conversion ratio was superior in T1 followed by T2 and T3 respectively with significant (P < 0.01) differences amongst the treatment groups. It was observed that the chicks under T3group consumed significantly (P < 0.01) more feed than T2 and T1 groups during the experimental period respectively. There was no mortality in all of the dietary treatments through out the experiment. Findings of the present study suggest that bajra can replace 25 - 50 per cent of maize in the broiler ration without affecting the performance of the broilers, but at the same time feed conversion ratio was poor for bajra incorporated feed T3 and T2 than T1.