FEEDING TESTS.

Waipa Post, Volume XIX, Issue 1104, 11 June 1921, Page 2

FEEDING TESTS.

MEAT VERSUS NO MEATA feeding test extending over 52 weeks has been carried on at the Government's Milton Poultry Station, New Zealand, to ascertain the effect of meat meal on the egg 'ield. Twenty-four White Leghorn 1 pullets of the same age and type were selected for the test and divi/led into four peris of six each. The ingredients provided in the rations were similar in every respect excepting that meat meal was given in two. of the pens. „The average cost of food a bird in the pens where no meat was supplied worked out at 11/6 a bird, and the meat-fed birds 13/4, whereas the number "of eggs laid by the meat-fed pens numbered 3087 against the no meat pens' total of 2551, a majority of 536 eggs in favour of the former. At 2/2 a dozen eggs from the me'st-fea birds realised £2 6/6 a bird, against that of £1 18/5 from the no-meat birds. Examining the results, it will be seen the meat-fed birds cost the most to feed, but produced the most eggs, and it would appear from this thct the inclusion of meat meal results in increased production. A total of 96Mb. of meat meal was consumed by tire 12 birds, 451 b. of which was included in morning mash and 5111 b. eaten from hoppers, where it was always available. The meat-fed birds cost 1/10 a bird more to feed than the nomeat birds, but against this they,produced an average of 45,riiore eggs each, or an extra profit of 6/2 a bird, which goes far to prove that the addition of animal fqod to ihe ration not only increases the egg, yield, but the net profit as well. The test is to be continued for another year with the rations reversed—pens 1 and 2 to have meat meal, whereas the occupants of pens 3 and 4 will have none.