Diary of a Poultry Farmer: A good substitute for omena in chicken feeds

A poultry trader sells his chicken in Kariobangi, Nairobi. To control quality and maintain optimum growth in chickens, include omena as one of the ingredients in the chicken feed. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Fish meal is a high quality protein feed ingredient rich in all the essential amino acids, Vitamin B12 and choline.
  • Generally, animal protein meals are a good source of essential amino acids like lysine and methionine and are also good sources of energy and minerals, particularly calcium and phosphorus.
  • Quality of omena deteriorates when stored in hot weather and if you include high levels in your ration above 10 per cent, it will affect quality of poultry meat and eggs especially if contaminated.
  • Ochonga can be a substitute for omena, but the thing is buy in kilos not small tins to get value.

Two topics – feed formulation and disease control – have dominated the feedback I receive from farmers every week.

And this is probably because the two are at the centre of poultry business thus determine whether a venture thrives or fails.

Aggrey Mwenesi, a farmer from Kakamega County fired the shot last month. “Kindly advice on the protein level for ‘ochonga’ and whether it can serve the same purpose as omena.” 

For a fact, I use omena (fish meal) as the only source of animal protein to formulate my feeds and because I had never heard about ochonga despite hailing from the lakeside, I decided to seek more information from him.

“Ochonga is a type of fish found in Lake Victoria which is smaller than omena,” he told me.

Now, at some point, I was using omena as the only source of protein in my feeds, then I stopped and resumed again following advice from Dr Silas Obukosia, an agricultural biotechnologist.

“Fish meal is a high quality protein feed ingredient rich in all the essential amino acids, Vitamin B12 and choline,” he told me.

“Generally, animal protein meals are a good source of essential amino acids like lysine and methionine and are also good sources of energy and minerals, particularly calcium and phosphorus,” he added.

That meant that if I wanted to control quality and maintain optimum growth in my chickens, I needed to include omena as one of the ingredients.

For sure, when I started to formulate my own feeds, I was using maize germ, omena, sunflower cake, soya, wheat pollard, wheat bran, amino acids supplements (methionine and lysine) and premixes.

CONTROL QUALITY

The reason for including omena was to control quality, but I later discovered good fish meal is very expensive.

As I tried to look for an alternative, Dr Obukosia told me categorically that other types of fish like mbuta (nile perch) are not a substitute for omena.

In the past, I had been sold omena which I suspected was mixed with mbuta and sand. I only came to know that it was not pure omena when I took a sample for testing at Kalro in Naivasha.

The Crude Protein (CP) was 10 per cent against a target of 55 per cent. CP is a measure of the total protein, including nitrogen from both protein and non-protein sources.

When I informed Dr Obukosia about the test results, he cautioned me about using poor quality omena to formulate feeds.

“Quality of omena deteriorates when stored in hot weather and if you include high levels in your ration above 10 per cent, it will affect quality of poultry meat and eggs especially if contaminated”.

I was, therefore, perplexed when Aggrey told me he had opted for ochonga instead of omena and yet he was buying 2kg of the omena at between Sh150 and Sh200.

I did quick mental calculations and concluded that Aggrey was buying a kilo of omena at between Sh75 and Sh100, which was cheaper than what I was buying from retailers in Thika.

On further enquiry, he let the cat out of the bag with this answer, “They sell it in gorogoros (tins that are equated to 2kg).” “Okay, have you ever weighed it using a weighing scale?” I asked.

“Yes, but the main problem was that it was mixed with sand, that is why I stopped buying,” he said.

WEIGHT CHEATING

Now, in addition to buying poor quality omena, Aggrey was a victim of weight cheating which is rampant when buying completed feeds and the raw materials for livestock feeds.

I have been a victim too (Seeds of Gold, May 28, 2016).

You see, a gorogoro of fish meal does not weigh the same as a gorogoro of maize or that of sunflower cake because although they occupy the same space in the tin, they don’t ‘weigh’ the same.

Now this is a common problem for farmers and I would urge that you insist on using a proper weighing scale and if the seller doesn’t have one, carry yours along.

I advised Aggrey to take a sample of the ochonga for testing at Kalro to see how it compares with omena. I also told him not to buy raw materials just because they are sold cheaply.

I then gave him the contact of my supplier in Thika whose omena, although expensive, I had tested and found to be of good quality.

On further inquiry, a friend told me I could also get quality omena from retailers in Nakuru at a reasonable price. I asked Aggrey to share the test results for protein content of ochonga.

Well, Aggrey is yet to get back. But recently while in Kisumu, I bought a Sh50 tin of ochonga and sent a sample to Kalro, Naivasha for analysis.

The results showed that the CP for ochonga is as good as that for omena, at 54. So, yes, it can be a substitute for omena, but the thing is buy in kilos not small tins to get value.

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Your Questions Answered

Pius Inyangala, Kitale: My turkeys hatched four poults but one died. I suspected blackhead disease (histomoniasis).

I read about herban, a herbal preparation and dimetridazole for treating the disease. The problem is none of these are available locally.

First, get a vet to confirm you are dealing with blackhead. Second, in case you are rearing the turkeys on land where hens have recently been raised, you run a bigger risk since hens act as carriers.

Also land that has been used for chickens, even if left vacant for years, should not be used to rear young turkeys since earthworms can also act as carriers.