THE INFLUENCE OF FEEDING YELLOW-SEEDED, GREEN-SEEDED AND BROWN-SEEDEDPEAS ON PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE OF LAYING HENS

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the feeding value of yellow -, green- and brown-seeded peas as protein and energy supplements in l aying hen diets. In experiment 1, all three types of peas were include d in laying hen diets at 0, 200, 400 and 600 g kg(-1) replacing wheat and soya bean meal. Layers fed diets containing peas at 200 g kg(-1) p roduced more (P less than or equal to 0.05) eggs, had higher (P less t han or equal to 0.05) egg mass output and better (P less than or equal to 0.01) feed conversion than those fed the wheat soya bean meal cont rol diet. With 400 g peas kg(-1) in diets, egg production, egg mass an d feed conversion were similar (P greater than or equal to 0.05) to th e control diet. Total replacement of soya bean meal with peas (600 g p eas kg(-1) in diets) reduced (P less than or equal to 0.01) egg produc tion, egg mass and feed conversion. A progressive (P less than or equa l to 0.01) improvement in yolk colour as the level of peas in the diet increased was observed. Shell quality decreased (P less than or equal to 0.05) with increasing levels of yellow or brown peas in the diets, however, it seemed not to be affected by green peas. Daily feed intak e, egg weight and mortality rates were not affected by dietary treatme nts. The influence of feeding diets containing yellow or brown peas su pplemented with varied levels of methionine on production performance of laying hens was investigated in experiment 2. The dietary treatment s consisted of a 400 g kg(-1) yellow or brown pea diet supplemented wi th three levels of methionine to 100, 115 and 130% of the NRC requirem ents. Methionine supplementation to either 15 or 30% above NRC require ment for laying hens had no significant (P greater than or equal to 0. 05) effect on all production parameters. It can be concluded that the inclusion of yellow, green or brown peas into laying hen diets up to 4 00 g kg(-1) does not affect production performance. The NRC recommenda tion of methionine requirement for laying hens is adequate to support maximum egg production for diets containing moderate quantities of pea s.