Partial replacement of maize by root and leaf meal of cassava in diets of laying hens

Tran Thi Hoan, Tu Quang Hien

Abstract: A mixture of 65% cassava root meal and 35% cassava leaf meal which is abbreviated as CRLM (cassava root – leaf meal) was used to partially replace maize in diets of Luong Phuong (LP) parent stock. The experiment was carried out with 450 hens and 60 roosters of LP breed from 35 to 54 weeks of age, divided equally into 5 treatments; each treatment had 30 hens and 4 roosters with triple repetition. All treatments were coded as T1, T2a, T2b, T3a and T3b; T1 served as control (no replacement was made) and metabolic energy (ME) of the diet met the feed ME standards of LP laying hens; T2a and T2b diets were replaced 30%, the T3a and T3b diets were replaced 40% grounded maize by CRLM; vegetable oils were added to T2b and T3b diets in order to achieve ME value similar to that of the control (T1), and vegetable oils were not added to T2a and T3a diets. The result showed that laying rate and egg productivity of T2b and T3b treatments were higher than that of the control (T1); T2a and T3a treatments were lower than T1. The replacement of grounded maize by 30 – 40% CRLM in the diets of laying hens would not affect the quality of incubated eggs. The cost for egg and chick production of T2a, T2b, T3a, T3b treatment was lower than that of T1, in which the cost of T2b was the lowest. Therefore, maize can be replaced with CRLM at 30 – 40% in the diet of LP laying hens with or without vegetable oil supplement, but 30% with added vegetable oil is optimal.

Keywords: Cassava leaf meal; Cassava root meal; laying hens; maize; replacement

Date published: 2023-04-27