Raw Materials For Manufacture Of Poultry Feed

The raw materials that are used for manufacture of poultry feeds are grouped as follows:

1. Cereal and grains: maize, rice, wheat, sorghum, bajra, ragi and other millets, broken rice, germs, middling and damaged wheat that is discarded from the food industry as unfit for human consumption.

2. Cakes or Oil meal: groundnut cake, soybean meal, rapeseed meal, sesame meal, sunflower meal, coconut meal, palm meal are used as protein resources.

3. Feed of animal origin: meat meal, fish meal, squilla meal, hatchery waste and bone meal are used. However, farmers face production problems due to bacterial contamination of fish and meat meal.

4. By-products: rice bran, rice polish, solvent extracted rice and wheat bran, molasses and salseed meal are by-products used in poultry feeds.

5. Minerals and vitamins: poultry feeds are enriched with calcium, phosphorus, trace minerals such as Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, CO and I and vitamins A, D₃, E, K and B Complex.

6. Feed additives: additives commonly used are antibiotics (usage not banned in India) prebiotics, probiotics, enzymes, mould inhibitors, toxin binders, anti-coccidial supplements, acidifiers, amino acids, antioxidants, feed flavours, pigments and herbal extract of Indian origin.

These raw materials for feed are adequately available in India.

As feed cost is the key factor in determining the profitability of poultry farming, feed manufacturers as well as farmers attempt to produce least cost rations by including some of the following products, depending upon their cost, availability and nutritive value:

• Forest Produce (Babul Seed, Rubber Seed, Tamarind Seed, Salseed, Etc.);
• Food Industry Waste (Biscuit Waste, Coco Shell, Bread Waste, Powder, Cocoa Beans, Macaroni Waste, Skim Milk Powder, Etc);
• Gum And Starch Industry (Guar Meal, Tapioca, Tapioca Spent Pulp, Etc.);
• Fruit And Vegetable Processing Waste (Citrus Wastes, Mango Waste, Tomato Pomace, Pineapple Waste, Tea Leaves, Etc.);
• Alcohol Industry Waste (Yeast   Sludge, Grape Extractions,   Breweries’ Dried Grain, Etc.).

Availability of raw materials has increased as the production of food grains and oil seeds in the country have risen over the past few years.