Effect of Okara (Soy Pulp) on the Performance of Rhodes Island Red (RIR) in Republic of Benin

This work was conducted to study the effect of feeding Okara levels on growth performance of RIR chicks. One hundred and fifty (150) day old, RIR (straight run) chicks were procured and leg banded and randomly distributed in three different treatments with two replicates. Each replicate contained 25 birds viz 50 birds per treatment. RIR chicks were fed ad libitum throughout the experiment as the control (T0) and other two groups T10 (10% Okara in diet) and T20 (20% Okara in diet) which received feed based Okara with different level. Feed intake, feed conversion ratio, daily weight gain (ADG) and economical efficiency were evaluated during rearing period. The chemical composition of Okara was determined in the laboratory. The chemical composition revealed that crude protein, crude energy and nitrogen-free extract were higher. The resulted outcomes indicate that Okara have a significant effect on body weight and Average Daily Gain of chickens. The average value of body weight of 1623; 1693 and 1740g were found in control group (T0), group T10 and group T20, respectively. Likewise, significant different were observed for feed intake. However, all types of treatment had similar effects on feed conversion ratio of chickens. Afterwards economical analysis, it may be inferred that Okara may be more economical at 20% in diet than 10%.