Comparison of characteristics of broiler chicken farms using pelleted or mash feed forms in Kira Municipality, in Wakiso district

Abstract

The current study focused on comparison of characteristics of broiler chicken farms using pelleted and mash feed forms in Kira municipality, in Wakiso district. A total of 63 broiler farmers were selected with 31 farmers using mashed feeds while 32 farmers used pelleted feeds to feed their broilers from five parishes and this sample was got through the non-probability method of snowball sampling. The study used a comparative survey design (quantitative research design) in order to get data that was to be used to assess the characteristics and productivity indices of broiler farms using pellets or mash feed forms in Kira municipality. A well-structured and pretested questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data and was administered face to face by a well-trained interviewer. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical analysis software (SPSS 2007) to produce summaries in form of graphs, frequency tables and percentages. Broiler Farms and farmers dealing in pelleted feed are more educated farmers (33.3%), adult farmers (33.3%), less feed servings per day (22.2%), store feed in main house (17.4%), inflexible feed formula (50.2%), adopt more biosecurity measures and use starter and grower feed diet (44.4%). Farms that use pellets are better off as birds grow faster (42.9%) (four weeks), more broiler batches in a year, larger flock sizes (on average 381 birds), less mortality rate (2.46%) and culling rate (0.88%) and market their birds within three days (44.5%) in compared to farms that use mash feed form (5.7%). There is limited difference on the quality of housing system, feeders, drinkers, time of getting market, means of payment and the means of getting the market between the farms that use pelleted feed form and those that use mash feed form