Philippine E-Journals

SWEET POTATO (Ipomea batatas l.) TUBER COMBINED WITH MALUNGGAY (Moringa oleifera) LEAF MEAL FOR FREE RANGE CHICKEN

Oliva M. Gaffud | Joel L. Reyes

 

Abstract:

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sweet potato (Ipomea batatas l.) tuber meal (SPTM) combined with malunggay (Moringa oleifera) leaf meal (MLM) as fed diets for free range chicken. Ninety (90) two-week-old chicks were distributed to three treatments replicated trice following the Completely Randomized Design. The treatments were: formulated ration alone (T1); formulated ration with 7.5% SPTM and 5% MLM (T2); formulated ration with 15% SPTM and 5% MLM (T3). Results of the study revealed significant (P<0.05) differences on body weight and gain in weight of broilers fed diet with SPTM combined with MLM. Adding SPTM with 5% MLM in broilers’ diet positively improved weight gain. However, no significant differences were observed on feed consumption and feed efficiency. Regarding economic return, T3 had the highest return of PhP190.53 followed by T2 with PhP184.04 and the least was T1 with Php178.44. The results showed that formulated ration with 15% SPTM enriched with 5% MLM improved body weight and weight gain of broilers under free-range production system and also gave higher economic return than formulated ration without SPTM and MLM.