A survey on the management practices and production performances of broiler chickens in Kurunegala district, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Remarkable improvements in broiler management made its meat available at low cost. To what extent management practices are adopted by local farmers and their effects on broiler production performance are not well documented in the Sri Lankan context. Hence, the present study investigated the effects of management factors on broiler production. One hundred broiler farmers, selected randomly from the areas in Kurunegala district, filled the structured questionnaire with face-to-face interviews. The data was analyzed with Excel and SPSS. The results showed that 74% of the farmers reared 1000 – 3000 birds, 88% of them fed pre-starter feed to birds below 10 days old, 94% fed starter feed from 10 – 20 days and 94% fed finisher to the birds above 20 days. Further, 77% of the farmers did not change the litter throughout the rearing cycle, 76% of them provided vaccine to birds, 96% were able to diagnose diseases, 96% used Baycox to treat disease and 40% provided supplements to their birds. 98% of the farmers sold live birds at 2kg and above 2kg body weight at the maximum of 42 days. The linear regression analysis showed that vaccination, experience of farmers, number of birds, not changing the litter, amount of starter feed, feeding days of pre-starter, feeding days of finisher, disease diagnosis and supplement can affect the body weight of the broiler and these factors together explain 68.1% of the variation in slaughter body weight. The study concludes that the slaughter weight of broiler chickens are affected by several rearing practices, thus, it is suggested the farmers may focus on feeding, vaccination, disease diagnosis, flock size, supplementation and litter management to increase the final slaughter weight of broiler chickens and production performance.