Nutritive value of new cultivars of triticale and wheat for broiler chick diets

Three experiments were conducted with broiler chicks from 1 to 21 days of age to evaluate Florida 301 variety of wheat and Beagle 82 variety of triticale. In Experiment 1, a completely randomized design (CRD) was used for five dietary treatments: yellow corn-soy (control), triticale-soy, yellow corn-triticale-soy, wheat-soy and yellow corn-wheat-soy. Diets were balanced to maintain equal levels of sulfur amino acids and lysine and were kept isocaloric (3,124 kcal/kg) using corn oil. In Experiment 2, a CRD was used for 10 dietary treatments. Each grain was substituted partially and totally for corn on both iso and nonisocaloric basis. Animal fat was the supplemental fat source. In Experiment 3, a CRD was used for 8 dietary treatments. Each grain was substituted for corn isocalorically using corn oil, animal fat, or both as supplemental fat sources. Results from these experiments showed that Florida 301 wheat is an excellent cereal grain for broiler chicks as measured by feed efficiency and growth response, which was numerically but not significantly greater than with a corn-soy control diet. Growth response was inconsistent with Beagle 82 triticale throughout the three experiments. However, feed efficiency was better with triticale diets than corn-based diets.