Sugar beet processing for sugar manufacture has many by-products with a significant amount of wastes: filtration sediment, transport and washing sediment, limestone screenings. A composition of filtration sediment (% weight of dry matter) is: calcium carbonate – 74.2; nitrogen-free organic compounds – 9.5; nitrogenous organic compounds – 5.9; sugar – 2.0; pectin substances – 1.7; lime in the form of various acids salts – 2.8; other minerals – 3.9.

The aim of the work was to identify the effectiveness of use the filtration sediment in the feeding of laying hens.

Scientific and economic experiment to study the filtration sediment application was conducted with Lohmann Brown breed laying hens at a poultry farm "Agrocenter" of Dnipropetrovsk region. The basic feed mixture (BFM) was made of feeds, specific to the conditions of Ukraine steppe: corn and barley grain, sunflower meal, wheat bran, millet, meat-and-bone meal, mineral supplements and Lohmann Brown company premix (Table 1).

 

Table 1 – The scheme of scientific and economic experiment

 

BFM was balanced on the basic nutrients as recommended by the Lohmann Brown company. We used both the actual nutritional value of feed and general information about the nutritional value of forage from steppe of Ukraine.

The largest number of eggs was obtained from hens of experimental groups, which had filtration sediment as a part of the diet. Egg production of experimental groups was, respectively – 64.61 and 64. 77 % against 63.32 % in control.

The average weight of egg in experimental poultry was higher than in control – 62.01–62.88 against 61.93 g. Morphological and vitamin content of eggs was related with weight. The addition of filtration sediment to the hens` feed mixture had no essential effect on cholesterol, vitamins A₂ В₂ and carotenoids in the yolk of eggs, which were sufficient and met the standards.

At the end of the scientific and economic experiment there was made a control slaughter in order to assess the impact of filtration sediment on the development of hens` individual body parts. Addition of filtration sediment to the hens diet contributed to yield increase of eviscerated and semi-eviscerated carcasses in relation to before slaughter live weight. The yield of semi-eviscerated poultry carcasses in the control group was 79.8 %, in the second and third experimental groups, respectively – 83.9 and 82.77 %. However, the found differences between the control and experimental poultry groups were not statistically significant.

Thus, results of our research show that hens, that were fed with filtration sediment added fodder, had stronger skeleton and higher yield of muscle tissue due to the more intense mineral metabolism.

The results of the scientific and economic experiment, indicators of control slaughter and biochemical studies suggest a positive effect of using filtration sediment in feeding laying hens. The addition of filtration sediment to hens diet increases egg productivity by 2.1–2.3 %.

It was noted a significant decrease of feed intake in the laying hens experimental groups. This trend is typical for the feed conversion into products. If feed consumption being calculated per 10 eggs in the control group was 1.70 kg, in poultry from the second and third experimental groups this rate was correspondingly lower – 1.57 and 1.47 kg. The results of research confirm that optimal mass fraction of filtration sediment in the hens` fodder is 2 %.

Key words: laying hens, filtration sediment, feed mixture.