The Varying Amounts of Dried Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia Crassipes) as a Feed Supplement on the Growth of Lohmann Broilers

The effects of varying amount of dried water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) as feed supplement on the growth of broiler were formally evaluated from April 1, 1995 to May 16, 1995, at Sagasa, Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat. A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was adopted on the study with four (4) treatments, each replicated thrice, namely, treatment 1, 15% dried water hyacinth meal and 85% commercial feeds, treatment 2, 25% dried water hyacinth meal and 75% commercial feeds, treatment 3, 35% dried water hyacinth and 65% commercial feeds and treatment 4, 100% commercial feeds. Feeding was done twice daily. Data on the survival rate, feed consumption. liveweight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined and analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT).

Results showed 100% survival rate. It revealed that the difference was not significant in the average feed consumption of birds in all treatment. On the other hand, treatment 1, obtained the highest liveweight gain of 1.095 kilograms. This was comparatively higher than those given with the other levels of dried water hyacinth meal, treatment 2, gave 0.764 kilogram, treatment 3, 0.762 kilogram and treatment 4, 0.895 kilogram, as the control of the study. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of liveweight gain of the birds after 42-day feeding period (Table 4), reveals that the difference in average liveweight gain among treatments is highly significant. These findings indicated that the inclusion of 15% dried water hyacinth meal as feed supplement have remarkably improved the growth of the broilers. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was computed and values recorded were 3.67 for treatment 1, 5.23 for treatment 2, with the highest FCR. 4.70 for treatment 3, and 4.55 for treatment 4. Analysis of Variance of FCR of broiler after 42-day of feeding (Table 7), shows that the difference among treatments means the lower the ratio, the higher the efficiency.