Intensively reared poultry needs a sufficient variety of nutrients in their diet for maximum growth and good health. The nutrients needed by birds differ depending on the species, age and production intent. To satisfy these specific needs, different types of diets need to be fed to different classes of poultry. Therefore, if we concentrate on chicken's diet, they'll be good and healthy.
What are the Nutrients and the Ingredients for Chicken?
Feed ingredients are selected in poultry diets based on the nutrients they can provide, the absence of anti-nutritional or harmful factors, their palatability or effect on voluntary feed consumption, and consistency. Amino acids present in proteins, vitamins and minerals are the main nutrients the food foods need to provide. Even starch, lipids and proteins require energy from all life functions.
We'll one by one to see what those nutrients are:
Water
Without food, birds can live longer than without water. Lack of consistent fresh water supply hinders the growth of young poultry; this results in low egg production and early moulting in the laying flock.
Water impacts virtually any of the bird's physiological functions. Constant supply of water is important for: i) feed digestion; ii) nutrient absorption; iii) waste product excretion; and iv) body temperature regulation.
Cereal grains
The word cereal benefits here include soluble cereal grains, by-products of cereals and distillers of dry crop. Cereal grains are used mainly to meet the energy needs of poultry. Corn is the main feed grain, though in different countries and regions of the world, different grains are used. A feed producer can, of course, in principle use any grain in a poultry diet if it is available at a reasonable cost. While the quantities and types of cereal grains included in poultry diets will generally rely on their current costs compared to their nutritional values, care must be taken to avoid large adjustments to the dietary cereal component as sudden changes may trigger digestive upsets that can reduce efficiency and predispose the birds to disease.
Protein meals
Protein is supplied from both vegetable and animal sources, such as meals of oilseeds, legumes, and by-products for processing slaughterhouse and fish processing.
Vegetable protein sources
Vegetable protein sources typically come as a meal or snack, which is a by-product of oilseed crops. Soy, rapeseed / canola, sunflower, palm kernel, copra, peanut linseed, and sesame seeds are the primary crops. New cultivars of some oilseeds and legumes have been produced which are naturally low in anti-nutritional factors, allowing for the inclusion of higher levels of unprocessed grains in poultry diets with no ill-effect.
Fats and oils
Fats and oils, collectively referred to as lipids, are frequently used in poultry feed to meet the animal's energy needs, as lipids have more than twice the amount of ME compared to carbohydrates or proteins per kg. In addition, lipids are a major carrier of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) and a dietary source of essential fatty acid, linoleic acid. Therefore, any increase in digestibility that can be accomplished through the use of suitable additives, such as enzymes, acidifiers and emulsifiers, will have a significant impact on dietary energy content.
Minerals and vitamins
Minerals are important for normal growth and development of the poultry, such as bone formation and processes in the body such as enzyme activation. Certain minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are required in large amounts. Many minerals, such as copper, iron, manganese, zinc, selenium, cobalt, iodine, and molybdenum, are needed in milligrams, but shortages of these minerals can lead to severe health problems in mild cases and death in serious cases.
Although most foods provide some vitamins and minerals, the vitamin and mineral requirements are generally met by dietary premixes. Diets may also include additives which are addressed in more detail in the section on feed additives for specific purposes.
You might want to plan, buy and mix your own feed or even grow all the grains, seeds and other components of a comprehensive feed for chicken. There are several different commercial feed options for each one, with different purposes. Many particulars are special. For example, at a specific number of weeks one supplier may have you turn to grower/finisher then another. Please follow your particular feed instructions and if in question check with your feed supplier or shop. Poultry farming is the best development if you want to reach customers using a cloud based approach. Contact us for more information on that.
