Effect of Month of Production on Reproductive Traits of Barred Plymouth Rock Parent Stock in the Humid Tropics
Journal Title: Global Journal of Animal Scientific Research - Year 2013, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Seasonal effects on reproductive performance of birds had been overblown in previous study with little or no mentioning of influence of individual month that comprised the season. It is imperative to understand the impact of each month in a season or year on the reproductive performance of birds for effective planning and productive management decisions. The main objective of this study, therefore, was to determine the effect of individual month of production on reproductive traits of Barred Plymouth Rock layer breeder hens. Data used for this study were collected from farm records kept between 2002 and 2005. Analyzed data showed that month of production significantly affected all the reproductive traits, and that coldest months, that is, June-September favored high egg production, fertility and hatchability rates, while hottest months, that is, October-May impacted negatively on birds’ performance. In addition, mortality rate was low during coldest months but highest in the hottest periods. The month of July recorded the highest (peak) production levels for all the traits, while the lowest was observed in November. This study revealed that prevailing environmental temperature in individual month determines the productivity level of breeder hens, and hence the profit margin of the stockholders. Therefore, concerted efforts should be made towards massive production of fertile eggs during the aforementioned cool and favorable months in order to meet the increasing demand for day-old chicks by poultry farmers. Possible intervention to increase broiler chickens production is that producers should plan their restocking in such a way that the birds will commence egg laying at the onset of cold months in order to maximize the positive influence of these months on performance of breeder birds.
Authors and Affiliations
Simeon O. Olawumi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP29001
- DOI -
- Views 516
- Downloads 11
Evaluation of Prospects Cattle Stallions of the Breed Simmental and Simbrah
For Mexico, the units of agricultural and forestry production is the main land use in the country, covering 57.3% of the country. In this regard, the state of Nuevo Leon, has a surface density which amounts to little m...
Nutritional Evaluation of Conventional Feedstuffs for Ruminants using InVitro Gas Production Technique
The use of crop residues and agricultural by-products in animal feeding is a very common practice in Myanmar. Nutritive values and fermentation characteristics of natural grass (NG), lablab bean stalk (LLB), butter bea...
Effects of Harvesting Management on Nutritive Values and Yielding of Cassava Foliage and Tuber
The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different harvesting period on the chemical composition and yielding of cassava (foliage and tuber). Two different ages of cassava foliage of initial harvesting,...
Genetic, Phenotypic and Environmental Trends for Growth and Reproductive Traits in Zandi Sheep.
This paper reports the genetic, phenotypic and environmental trends for growth traits including birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), 6-month weight (6MW), 9-month weight (9MW) and yearling weight (YW). Reproductive...
Effects of Supplementation with Ficus Sycomorus (Shola) on Performances of Washera Sheep Fed Natural Pasture Hay.
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementations with F. sycomorus leaf, fruit and their mixtures on digestibility of sheep fed basal diet hay, The experiment was carried out at Gish Abay in Seke...