Abstract
A study was conducted to reveal the effect of different feeding strategies on performance and the body composition of two strains of commercial broilers from 1 to 5 wks. of age.This study was also to re-test the grower practical feeding in the field.One hundred-and twenty-day-old chicks of each strain were randomly allocated to eight dietary treatments with a 2 4 factorial arrangement.They were fed to a starter diet (S) containing 200 g protein/kg diet and 3120 kcal ME/kg diet and a finisher diet (F) containing 190 g CP and 3300 kcal of ME/kg.Four different feeding strategies were applied, R1-SSSFF, three weeks fed starter diet and 2 weeks fed finisher diets.Similar codes for R2-SSFFF; R3-SSSSF and R4 -SSSSS.They were housed in floor pens (10 birds/m2) on rice husk litter in the open housing system.Lighting was 16 h of light and 8 h of darkness.There were no significant differences of two strains in terms of body weight, and weight gain, but differences on feed intake and FCR.The study also found that today's broilers showed the best performance when feeding all starter diets from post-hatch until 5 wks of age as a standard marketing age.The groups with more starter diets showed improve growth performance and FCR.Breast meat yield was significantly higher in birds fed all starter diets than those fed the other diets, whereas birds fed finisher diets had significantly more abdominal fat than those fed the starter diets.No effect of strains and feeding regimens on thigh records.No interaction between strains and feeding strategies except abdominal fat.