1College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou-450002, P.R. China
2State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutition, Institute of Animal Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing-100094, P.R. China
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou-450002, P.R. China
3College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou-450002, P.R. China
4College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing-100193, P.R. China
In order to increase nutritive values of corn stover, steam explosion and microbial fermentation were used together to make biological corn stover (BCS) for replacing partial corn meal in broiler diet. The experiments were assigned to 5 groups. Group 1 was the control, group 2–4 was added with 4%, 8% and 12% BCS for replacing the same amount of corn meal, group 5 was the same as group 3 except for its ME level adjusted. The results indicated that inclusion of BCS in young broiler diets decreased average daily gain (ADG) and increased feed conversion rate (FCR) significantly (P<0.05); however, most parameters such as ADG, FCR, nutrient metabolic rates and carcass characteristics had no significant changes among 5 groups for the elder broilers (P>0.05). It could be concluded that 4–8% BCS in diets as an alternative grain source was optimal for elder broiler production.
Biological corn stover, Broilers, Carcass characteristics, Nutrient metabolic rates, Production performance
