Bird resistant grain sorghums in broiler diets

Three experiments, involving 1140 4 week old broiler type chicks, were conducted to study the effects of substituting various levels of bird resistant grain sorghums for yellow corn in a broiler diet. In one experiment, chicks fed diets in which Arkansas 614 or DeKalb BR60 replaced 100 percent of the corn had significantly heavier body weights than chicks fed a corn basal diet. The tannin (tannic acid equivalents) from the bird resistant sorghums in amounts of 0.79 percent apparently had no detectable affect upon chick growth. Pigmentation scores decreased as the percent of grain sorghum in the diets was increased. In two experiments, twelve bird resistant grain sorghums were substituted for 50 percent of the yellow corn in broiler diets. No significant differences (P> .05) were found in chick body weights, feed conversion or pigmentation scores. A preference test showed that chicks preferred Co-op 4 and Arkansas 614 control over the other available bird resistant grain sorghums. Protein content of the mature bird resistant grain sorghums ranged from 7.17 to 10.25 percent, and tannin content varied from 1.40 to 1.85 percent. It was found that the tannin content of the bird resistant grain sorghums decreased as the grain reaches maturity.