PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF CORN WITH DATES IN LAYER DIET

High carbohydrate contents of dates enable them to replace energy source ingredients in the animal rations. Two experiments were conducted to study the possibility of partially replacing corn with dates in layer rations. Three levels of inclusion were used in these experiments: 0.5: 1, 0.75: 1 and 1 : 1 of dates to corn. This resulted in three rations containing 20, 24, and 28% dates plus a control which contained no date. Results of the first experiment showed that inclusion of 20% date had a positive effect on egg production parameters of layers at 50 weeks of age. However, increasing the level to 24 and 28% dates had a negative effect on the layers performance. Since this experiment was of a short duration (140 days), another one was conducted using the same treatments plus another control bought from a local mill. The results of this experiment (224 days) provided evidence that inclusion of dates, regardless of the level used, had negatively affected the performance of the layers. It is concluded that inclusion of dates in the layer rations may not be of benefit to the producers.