• Corpus ID: 14991043

EFFECT OF FEED PROCESSING ON BROILER PERFORMANCE

@inproceedings{Behnke2002EFFECTOF,
  title={EFFECT OF FEED PROCESSING ON BROILER PERFORMANCE},
  author={Keith C. Behnke and Scott Beyer},
  year={2002}
}

• K. Behnke, S. Beyer
• Published 2002

It is well recognized that feed represents the most significant cost of broiler production. Most production costs estimates range from 60-70% as being feed costs. Certainly, the major portion of feed costs is for the ingredients used. However, the cost of feed processing represents a significant portion of feed costs and likely gives the greatest opportunity for influencing broiler performance beyond nutritional adequacy. “Feed processing” and the costs associated with processing include a wide range of unit operations including receiving, grinding, proportioning, mixing, pelleting, loadout, and delivery. Nearly every one of these operations can have either a negative or positive influence on subsequent animal performance and can certainly influence the profitability of an integrated broiler company. This paper will focus on only three of the unit operations mentioned above: grinding, mixing, and pelleting. These operations are likely to have the greatest influence on broiler performance and feed quality and are dealt with, at least to some extent, in the scientific literature. Because grinding likely has a greater influence on the pelleting operation rather than on bird performance, these two topics will be addressed together later in the paper.