Cassava meal for chickens

Feeding chickens is different from feeding pigs. For pigs, you can give the feed as mash, dried materials or fresh materials. For chickens, you need to give all their feed in mash form only. Just like pig feeding, cassava meal must be mixed with other feeds in compounded rations and fed in mash form. The energy value of cassava meal for chickens is similar to those of cereal grains.

How much cassava meal can be used? The maximum amount of cassava meal that can be used varies for different types of chickens:

For young chickens and for broilers: you must not use more than 20 percent cassava meal in rations. If you are mixing a 10-kg ration, cassava meal must not make up more than 2 kg.

In the rations of growing chickens: you can include up to 30 percent cassava meal. You can use up to 3 kg of cassava meal in mixing a 10-kg ration.

For chickens that are laying eggs: you can include up to 40 percent cassava meal. When you mix a 10-kg ration, up to 4 kg can be cassava meal.

Too much cassava meal must be avoided. If you use too much cassava meal, the ration will become powdery and dusty.

Powdery rations can cause problems. You can get irritated by the dust. Birds can also be irritated by dust. Finally they will not eat enough.

How can you overcome the dustiness? There are several ways by which dustiness can be overcome:

By pelleting: Using pellets effectively overcomes the dustiness and powdery texture. However, you cannot do this on your farm because you need a pelleting machine.

By the addition of molasses or fat: You can also overcome the dustiness by adding molasses or fat, if these are available and cheap in your area.

By wet mash feeding: Wet mash feeding can be used to avoid the dustiness problem. Wet mash feeding is also very useful during hot weather.

Source: http://www.nzdl.org