Response of Growing and Mature Pullets to Continuous Feeding of Cane Final Molasses

INVESTIGATIONS on the ability of growing and laying chickens to tolerate cane final molasses have been reviewed by Ewing (1951) and Scott (1953). In general, as with young chicks, earlier reports have shown that the growing chicken can make effective use of levels ranging around 5 percent of total ration, whereas concentrations in excess of 10 percent tended to induce diarrhea and were uneconomical. Similarly, it was concluded that mature chickens cannot efficiently utilize comparatively high levels of molasses. In contrast, two papers have recently presented studies which tend to refute these earlier reports. It was found that optimum results to 6 weeks of age, as determined by growth rate and cost of feed per unit of gain, may be obtained on concentrations of cane final molasses ranging from 7.5 to 23.0 percent, while other lots of chicks safely tolerated levels as high as 34.5 percent of total ration (Rosenberg, 1955)… .