Energy and protein dilution in broiler breeder pullet diets reduced offspring body weight and yield.

The objective of the current research was to evaluate transgenerational effects of maternal dietary energy and protein on growth, efficiency, and yield of broiler offspring. A factorial arrangement of treatments consisting of high and low ME and CP levels fed during the rearing and laying phases was used. The study was a final 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, including broiler sex.

Effects of environmental temperature and dietary energy on energy partitioning coefficients of female broiler breeders.

With increasing disparity between broiler breeder target weights and broiler growth potential, maintenance energy requirements have become a larger proportion of total broiler breeder energy intake. Because energy is partitioned to growth and egg production at a lower priority than maintenance, accurate prediction of maintenance energy requirements is important for practical broiler breeder feed allocation decisions. Environmental temperature affects the maintenance energy requirement by changing rate of heat loss to the environment.

Effects of broiler breeder management on pullet body weight and carcass uniformity.

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of broiler breeder feeding management practices on pullet performance, BW uniformity, and carcass traits during rearing (to 22 wk of age). At 3 wk of age, 1,200 Ross 308 breeder pullets were assigned to one of 5 treatments: 1) control: standard mash diet, fed daily; 2) high fiber: mash diet containing 25% lower nutrient density, fed daily; 3) scatter: standard diet in pellet form scattered on litter, fed daily; 4) skip-a-day: standard mash diet, fed on alternate days; or 5) grading: standard mash diet, fed daily (birds sorted into low, average, and high BW groups every 4 wk). Birds on the high fiber treatment consumed more feed (P<0.

Effect of maternal dietary energy and protein on live performance and yield dynamics of broiler progeny from young breeders.

The objective of this research was to evaluate effects of female broiler breeder dietary ME and CP during rearing and dietary ME during early lay on broiler offspring performance and carcass yield dynamics. A factorial arrangement of treatments, with 2 ME levels, and 2 balanced protein levels from 3 to 24 wk, followed by 2 ME levels in the lay diets, and in the broilers, 2 sexes. A total of 1,635 broilers were housed in 32 pens, with 8 replicate pens according to maternal laying diet and sex.

Effect of age at photostimulation on sexual maturation in broiler breeder pullets.

Genetic selection programs in broiler stocks have contributed to changes in the responsiveness of the broiler breeder female to nutritional factors. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of photostimulation (PS) age on sexual maturity traits in current broiler breeder pullets. Seven hundred twenty Ross 308 pullets with full access to feed to 1 or 3 wk of age were divided among 8 environmental rooms to 16 wk of age.