Buckwheat in the nutrition of broilers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at EMBRAPA/Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Suíno e Aves (CNPSA) at Concórdia, SC, Brazil, from October to November 1983. Two thousand four hundred and eighty-four Hubbard chicks were used in the experiment from day one to 49 days of age. Those chicks were randomly assigned to 54 pens in a 6 x 3 factorial experiment (6 ration x 3 sex cathegories with three replications of each treatment. The 18 treatments consisted of substituting com by buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) in the levels of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% and three cathegories involving sexes (100% males, 100% females and 50% males plus 50% of females). The pens of birds were weighed each week and corresponding feed consumption were determined to provide observations for statistical analysis. It could be seen from the results of total gain and feed conversion (2,036 and 2.07, 1,984 and 2.12. 1.958 and 2.15, 1,997 and 2.15, 1.952 and 2.29, 1.873 and 2.35, respectively in differents levels of substitution) that buckwheat can substitute com up to 60% in the ration. It was also found that the substitution of com for buckwheat would only be economically efficient when the ratio corn/buckwheat price was greater than 1.49.