This research proposal aims to study alkali-treated sorghum spent grain as a feed ingredient for broilers. The researcher will determine the optimum inclusion level of treated spent grain that can replace maize without affecting broiler performance. Data on intake, growth, and economics will be collected and analyzed. 240 birds will be fed diets with 0%, 10%, 20%, or 30% inclusion of treated spent grain from weeks 2 to 10. The results may identify cost-effective feed alternatives and inclusion levels to support the local poultry industry.

1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
RESEARCH TOPIC;
ALKALI-TREATED SORGHUM SPENT GRAIN AS A FEED
INGREDIENT IN BROILER DIET
A CASE STUDY AT VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY-TECHIMAN CAMPUS”
PRESENTATION
BY
ADU FOSU ABRAHAM
(211AB01000010)

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
1. INTRODUCTION
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
4. MATERIALS AND METHODS
5. WORKPLAN FOR THE PROJECT
6. BUDGET FOR THE PROJECT

3. INTRODUCTION
Poultry are domesticated birds that are kept by humans for the
purposes of obtaining meat, eggs and sometimes feathers. Some
examples are; chicken, duck, turkey, guinea fowl, etc.
Broilers are kept for their meat. Local breeds and exotic breeds are the
type of breeds in Ghana, but exotic breeds are kept for commercial
production, White Cornish and the White Plymouth Rock are
examples. Broilers originated from USA, South America and Australia

4. INTRODUCTION
Domesticated birds (poultry) belong to a sub family called Galliformis
and have a scientific name of (Gallus domesticus.)
Birds (wild and domesticated) belong to the family Phasianidae.
The diet of a particular household in Ghana today is always supplemented with
protein of vegetable sources, which fall short in meeting the protein requirement of
an individual (Ndams et al,2008 ).

5. INTRODUCTION
This is as a result of the drastic drop in the daily intake of meat or egg as a source
of protein for an average family. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been
working among nations to see that the world problem of malnutrition is solved,
particularly in the third world countries.
Broiler production has been reported to offer the most rapid and cost effective
means of making available, high quality animal protein to man in many parts of the
world ( Ndams et al,2008).
Beszedits and Lugowski as cited by Shier and Purwono (1994) reported an
estimated 4 million metric tons of annual protein shortfall worldwide.

6. INTRODUCTION

BROILERS IMAGE

7. INTRODUCTION
This trend in protein production has left animal producers particularly poultry, a
great challenge to face.
Therefore, the need to work hard and meet the FAO recommendation for animal
protein intake through commercial broiler production cannot be over emphasized.
With broiler production, cost of feed has been a major concern as this has always
led to high cost of production, and has not been a lucrative enterprise because
apart from the high cost and unavailability of the conventional feedstuffs, there is
also competition with human beings, livestock and poultry (Amisah et al., 2009)

8. INTRODUCTION
To solve this problem, Animal nutritionist are searching for non-conventional
feedstuffs which are readily available and cheaper in order to cut down on the
feed cost which constitute about 65-70% of the total cost of production
(
Reddy 1996)
Some of the unconventional feed resources includes crop residues and agroindustrial by-products.

9. INTRODUCTION
Among the non-conventional feed resources is the sorghum spent grain locally
known as pito mash (PM). This is a by-product from sorghum grains used in the
production of a local bear called pito in Ghana.
The inclusion of dry Pito mash (DPM) in animal feed is essential due to its
nutritional content, availability and non-competitiveness. In some communities,
the wet grains are left to rot, but a few farmers in some communities where
sorghum beer (pito) is brewed feeds their sheep and goats with it.

10. PITO MASH

11. INTRODUCTION
Dry pito mash (DPM), however contains a wide range of essential nutrients which
are needed by poultry.
For instance Couch (1978) and Ewing (1965) found that the DPM contains over
20% CP, about 6% EE, over 15% CF, and about 4% ash.
 Almquist (1972) also discovered that the dry pito mash contains 25% CP and that
it was fairly contain 0.9% lysine, 0.4% methionine, 0.4% tryptophan, 1.2%
phenylalanine, 1.1% threonine and 1.6% valine.

12. INTRODUCTION
Adeleye et al. (2004) also reported that DPM contains 24.29% CP, 15.58% CF
and 8.90% EE.
The nutrient profile of the pito mash, as been stated, makes it clear that pito mash
can be made a better feed ingredient for non-ruminants.
In fact various inclusion levels of pito mash have been incorporated in the diet of
pigs and poultry with some level of success achieved in Ghana.

13. INTRODUCTION
Lamptey (1980), for instance, reported that various replacements levels of pito mash
as the main energy source, have been utilized in poultry and pigs diet.
Fombad and Mafeni(1989) also had some positive results when fed poultry with
DPM at 30% inclusion level but stated that, dry pito mash has a high crude fibre and
moderate protein content.

14. INTRODUCTION
That resulted in lower digestibility of the diet containing high amount of DPM.
NB;
It should be noted that poultry is a monogastric and that they are unable to
manufacture essential amino acids or the B vitamins, therefore cannot utilize a
high crude fibre content diets.
It is therefore significant to reduce the crude fibre content before giving to the
poultry for efficient utilization.

15. INTRODUCTION
However, these limitations (high crude fibre content, low feed conversion
efficiency) may be overcome by treating the dried pito mash with alkali (plantain
peel ash extract) to improve it’s utilization by broilers
The study seeks to assess the nutritive value of sorghum spent grain
(pito mash) treated with plantain peel ash extract as a feed ingredient
and further determine the meat yield of a broiler fed with diet
containing the alkali-treated pito mash from 2nd week to 10th week.

16. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The Specific objective of the study include;
 Determine the optimum inclusion level of alkali-treated pito mash that can
replace maize in the grower and finisher diet without adverse effect on the
productive performance.
 Estimate the effect of alkali-treated pito mash diet on intake and growth
parameters of the birds, e.g. feed intake, water consumption and feed
consumption efficiency in kilogram-feed per weight gain

17. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
 Cost-benefit analysis will be carried out to establish the economic feasibility of
the experimental diet.
 Recommendation will be drawn based on the results of the study.

18. LITERATURE REVIEW
The consumption of poultry meat and eggs has increased in this decade and has
resulted in increase in the demand for poultry product and hence feed ingredients
cost.
 Therefore there is a great need for substitutes, which are not compete for by
human and can be successfully included in poultry diets to replace the commonly
used ingredients. (Reddy 1996)

19. LITERATURE REVIEW
Recently, the growth of animal feed industry has allowed a considerable use of byproducts, of which some of them have some limitations such as: high fiber and low
energy contents, low availability of amino acids or anti-nutritive factors (Ishibashi
and Ohta, 2000).
Sorghum spent grain (pito mash) is a by-product of the local breweries. The residue
is brownish and odorless when properly dried and has a sour taste. The local
breweries are scattered all over Ghana especially in the Northern parts of Ghana,
which makes it something not difficult to come by.

20. METHODOLOGY
MATERIALS
Materials that will be needed are;
I. Sorghum spent grains(SSG)
II. Plantain peel ash extract(PPAE)
III. Broilers (day old chicks)
IV. Broiler feed
V. Vaccines and drugs
VI. Poultry house
VII.Feeding trough
VIII.Water trough
IX. Weighing scale

21. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Four (4) different inclusion levels of alkaline-treated pito
mash in broiler diet in a scattered arrangement with 3
replication will be used for the experiment
In all 240 birds would be used under dip letter system,
with 20 birds per replicate, given 60 birds per treatment.
Broiler starter diet will be used to feed the broiler
chicks in the first week.
The birds will be moved to different cages after one week
and be put under their various experimental diets.

22. TREATMENTS
The experiment would be conducted using four different types of diet
which will be replicated six times.
The treatments would be as follows;
0% alkaline treated SSG inclusion level (no treated SSP )
10 % alkaline treated SSG inclusion level
20 % alkaline treated SSG inclusion level
30 % alkaline treated SSG inclusion level

23. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The treatments will be represented as follows;
1.
2.
3.
4.
0% inclusion level will be represented as T1
10% will be represented asT2
20% will represented as T3
30% will be represented asT4
NB: These treatments will be arranged as T1,T2,T3 and T4 as shown in
the next slide.

24. 4 treatments with 6 replications arranged in an orderly manner.
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
21
23
T1
T2
T3
T4
T3
T4
T1
T2
T3
T1
T2
2
4
3
8
10
12
14
16
20
22
24
T1
T2
T3
T4
T3
T4
T1
T2
T3
T1
T2

25. PEN 1(12 CAGES)
PEN2 (12 CAGES)

26. DATA COLLECTION
The data to be collected during the project for analysis are;
I. Cost of production
II. Feed and Water intake daily,.
III. The initial weight of the birds before they are put on the
experimental diet.
IV. Weight monitoring in every week
V. Live weight after the experiment

27. MATERIALS AND METHODS
At the end of the experiment, 10 birds from each replicate will be
selected for carcass analysis on the basis of these parameters;
I. Dressing percentage
II. Gizzard weight
III. Shank length
IV. Weight of intestines
V. Wing weight
VI. Drum stick weight
VII.Thigh weight

28. DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected on these parameters will be subjected to;
I. Analysis of variance (Anova)
II. Test of significance(LSD test)

29. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results will report on the performance of broilers fed with
alkaline- treated sorghum spent grain inclusion diet and the
control diet.

30. EXPECTED OUTCOME
The following would be achieved or known after the research;
I.
To get a broiler feed that is low in cost but not detrimental to their
growth.
II. To find alkaline- treated SSG inclusion levels in diets with high
intake level and high feed conversion efficiency
III. To obtain percentage of alkaline treated pito mash that should be
added to broiler feed for good performance.

31. RESEARCH SCHEDULE
ACTIVITY
LIT.REVIEW
BIRDS REARING
DATA COLLECTION
DATA SCREANING
DATA ANALYSIS
REPORT WRITING
REPORT EDITTING
& SUBMISSION
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH

32. 3.6.RESEARCH BUDGET
ITEMS
QUANTITY
UNITPRICE
ESTIMATE
240
2.50
600.00
Soya bean meal
3
105.00
315.00
Maize
3
60.00
240.00
Fish meal
2
160.00
320.00
Salt
20
0.50
10.00
Methionine lysine
5
14.00
70.00
Oyster shells
2
11.00
22.00
Broiler premix
5
8.00
40.00
Pito mash
3
20.00
60.00
Coccidiostat 1
1
55.00
55.00
Coccidiostat 2
1
52.00
52.00
Antibiotics
1
48.00
48.00
Broiler vitamins
5
38.00
190.00
Wheat bran
5
12.00
60.00
Birds (D.O.C)
GRAND TOTAL
2,082

33. EXPECTED RETURNS /INCOME
Estimation of returns;
200 birds will be sold out of 240
 The least weight gain per bird after the 10 weeks is expected to be
1.5kg
If 1kg= GHC 10
Then 1.5 10= GHC 15
Therefore 200 birds GHC15=GHC 3,000

34. THE END