1. VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
AGRIBUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BSc. IN AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT
PROPOSED PROJECT TOPIC
ALKALI-TREATED SORGHUM SPENT GRAIN AS
A FEED INGREDIENT IN BROILER DIET
“A CASE STUDY AT VALLEY VIEW UNIVERSITY-TECHIMAN
CAMPUS”
BY
ADU FOSU ABRAHAM
(211AB01000010)
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
7. EXPECTED OUTCOME

2. 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
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).
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.
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)
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)

3. Some of the unconventional feed resources include crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That resulted in lower digestibility of the diet containing high amount of DPM.
NOTE:
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.

4. 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
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The study seeks to assess the 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.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The Specific objective of the study includes;
 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
 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.
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)
Recently, the growth of animal feed industry has allowed a considerable use of by- products, 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.
METHODS AND MATERIALS

5. 
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Materials that will be needed for the project are;
Sorghum spent grains (SSG)
Plantain peel ash extracts (PPAE)
Broilers (day old chicks)
Broiler feed
Vaccines and drugs
Poultry house
Feeding trough
Water trough
Weighing scale
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Four (4) different inclusion levels of alkaline-treated pito mash in broiler diet in a scattered
arrangement with three replicates 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.
TREATMENTS
The experiment would be conducted using four different types of diet which will be replicated
six times.
The treatments would be as follows;
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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
ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE TABLE
SOURCES OF VARIATION
Total
Treatment
Error
DEGREE OF FREEDOM
23
3
20

6. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
T1
T2
T3
T4
T3
T4
T1
T2
T4
T3
T1
T2
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
T1
T2
T3
T4
T3
T4
T1
T2
T4
T3
T1
T2
The treatments will be represented as follows
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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 above.
4 treatments with 6 replications arranged in a completely randomized design would be
employed for the project as demonstrated in the table below;
DATA COLLECTION
The data to be collected during the project for analysis are;
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Cost of production
Feed and Water intake daily,.
The initial weight of the birds before they are put on the experimental diet
Weight monitoring in every week
Live weight after the experiment
MATERIALS AND METHODS

7. At the end of the experiment, 10 birds from each replicate will be selected for carcass analysis
on the basis of these parameters;
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Dressing percentage
Gizzard weight
Shank length
Weight of intestines
Wing weight
Drum stick weight
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected on these parameters will be subjected to;
 Analysis of variance (Anova)
 Test of significance (LSD test)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results would report on the performance of broilers fed with alkaline- treated sorghum spent
grain inclusion diet and the control diet.
EXPECTED OUTCOME
The following would be achieved or known after the research;
 To get a broiler feed that is low in cost but not detrimental to their growth.
 To find alkaline- treated SSG inclusion levels in diets with high intake level and high
feed conversion efficiency
 To obtain percentage of alkaline treated pito mash that should be added to broiler feed for
good performance.
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