The Effect of Different Supplementation on Nutritive Value of Barley in Layer Performance

Feeding high levels of barley to laying hens is accompanied with dirty eggs, decreasing the feed intake and egg size. To improve the diet with barley for layers, different chemicals including a commercial enzyme effective on barley (Fin Feed), cupric sulfate pentahydrate, sodium bicarbonate, magnesium sulfate and oxytetracycline antibiotic were supplemented to experimental barley based diets. It was found that the commercial enzyme had a significant effect on layer performance. Other treatments didn't have any considerable effects on their performances. Enzyme supplementation significantly (P < 0.05) improved feed intake, production rate and daily egg mass production of laying hens. No significant difference were observed in laying performance of mature birds fed with barley-based diet or soybean corn diet.