Author : Hanny Indrat Wahyuni

Summary : This study was conducted to evaluate the feeding value of palm kernel meal (PKM) in broiler and layer diets. Two experiments were simultaneously performed using 240 broilers in Experiment 1 and 48 SCWL pullets in Experiment 2. The broilers in Experiment 1 and pullets in Experiment 2 were randomly assigned to four treatment groups and fed their respective diets containing 0, 5, 10, and 15 percent PKM. The PKM used in this study had the following analysis: 93.90 percent dry matter (DM), 17.00 percent crude protein (CP), 13.45 percent crude fiber (CF), 11.57 percent ether extract (EE), 5.74 percent ash, 49.97 percent nitrogen free extract (NFE), 0.71 percent calcium, 0.30 percent phosphorous, 4,502 kcal/kg gross energy, 1,960 kcal/kg apparent metabolizable energy (AME), 2,749 kcal/kg true metabolizable energy (TME), and 39.91 percent DM digestibility. The CF and EE of the broiler (starter and finisher), and layer diets consistently increased with incresed levels of PKM. The digestibilities of EE and CF of the broiler starter diets showed significant cubic trend as the PKM in the diet was increased, while a linear decrease was observed in NFE digestibility. The digestibility of CF of the broiler finisher diets showed significant linear decrease with increasing levels of PKM in the diets. Results of Experiment 1 showed that body weight gain, feed consumption, feed efficiency, and dressing percentage were not significantly affected by the levels of PKM in the diets. Inclusion of 15 percent PKM in the layer diet significantly decreased feed consumption, percent hen-day egg production and egg ball thickness. On the other hand, egg weight was depressed with the inclusion of 15 percent PKM during the first four weeks. Egg yolk color score tended to increase when PK in the diet was increased. The unit price of the broiler (starter and finisher) and layer diets increased slightly as the PKM in the diet was increased.