Replacing maize with pearl millet in laying hens' diets.

Pearl millet grain could be considered as an alternative feed ingredient for poultry. In a 12 wks experiment, the performance of laying hens fed diets containing pearl millet were compared with those fed diets containing corn. Maize grain was replaced by pearl millet on an equal-weight at either 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100%. Results showed that use of 25, 50 and 75% of pearl millet in place of maize in the diet resulted in similar (P > 0.05) hen-day egg production, egg mass, egg weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio to those of control group. Totally replacement of maize grain with pearl millet significantly (P < 0.05) reduced all production parameters. Egg quality parameters did not affect by using pearl millet in the diet. These results showed that maize grain can be replaced by pearl millet up to 75% in the diets of laying hens without any adverse effect on hen performance or egg quality.