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A Comparison of Feeding Corn, Oats, and Barley on the Growth of White Leghorn Chickens, Gastrointestinal Weights of Males, and Sexual Maturity of Females

Department of Avian Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8532; Phone: (916) 752-3513; FAX: (916) 752-8960

Correspondence: R. A. Ernst, E-mail:raernst{at}ucdavis.edu

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing corn, oats, or barley to commercial White Leghorn chickens. Isocaloric diets were used with 20 or 40% of the corn replaced by oats or barley. Diets were fed with or without grit to 15 wk of age in a factorial design.

Feeding oats increased gastrointestinal tract and gizzard weight at 12 wk of age when compared with the corn diet. Grit also increased gizzard weight at this age. Increased gizzard size, due to oats, persisted to 20 wk of age. The 20% oat diet resulted in earlier mean age at first egg. Metabolizable energy determinations of the corn, 40% oats, or 40% barley diets, using males grown on the same or contrasting diets, were not affected by growing treatments.

Key Words: Barley • corn • growing diets • Leghorn chickens • metabolizable energy • oats • organ weights • sexual maturity