Effects of Asparagus Trims By-Product Supplementation in Laying Hens Diets on Nutrient Digestibility and Productive Performance

An experiment was conducted to examine the utilization of asparagus trims by-product as alternative feedstuffs in laying hen diets. Two hundred and forty laying hens (ISA-Brown strain), 40 weeks of age were raised under ambient temperature and assigned in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four dietary treatments and three replications per treatment. Each treatment contains different levels of asparagus trims by-product (0, 1, 2 and 3% TAP). All birds were fed with diets containing 18% CP and 11.9 MJ/kg (ME) of laying hens diet to meet nutrient requirements of poultry according to NRC (1994). Diets were restricted (110 g/h/d) throughout the study (42 days) and drinking water was offered ad libitum to the bird. Results showed that total hen-day egg production, egg mass, feed conversion ratio per one dozen of egg (FCR, feed:gain) and feed cost per gain (FCG) per one dozen of egg were not significantly different (P>0.05) among treatments. The average egg weight values differ significantly among levels of asparagus trims (P 0.05) among levels of asparagus trims by-products. However, fiber digestibility of birds fed with 3% of asparagus trims were higher than those with 2% asparagus trim, and significantly higher than those in control groups and 1% of asparagus trims (P 0.05). Nevertheless, asparagus trims by-product is suitable alternative feedstuffs in laying hen diets.