Effect of sequential feeding and feed form on laying hens fed whole sorghum

This study was conducted to monitor the performance of ISA Brown layers under different feeding systems using sorghum. The effect of feeding nutritionally different diets in sequential or loose-mix systems on the performance of three hundred and sixty (360) laying hens from 23 rd to 42 nd weeks of age was investigated. The birds were assigned to four (4) treatment groups of ninety (90) birds each. The treatments were control maize (ground), control sorghum (ground), loose-mix and sequential. Sequential feeding was found to reduce total feed intake, compared to both loose-mix and the two control treatments. Egg production was lower (P<0.05) in the sequential treatment while egg weight, egg mass and final body weight were higher (P<0.05). Feed conversion ratio was better (P<0.05) in the sequential feeding. The study concluded that sorghum can be used as a replacement for maize part per part in feeding layers and that feeding whole sorghum grains loosely-mixed or sequentially had no negative effects on the performance of laying hens and are thus potential alternatives to the conventional feeding system.