Performance of young geese fed diets containing rye and enzyme preparations

The nutritional value of a diet containing rye plus an enzyme preparation was evaluated on 480 White Italian goslings divided into 4 groups. Al l of the birds were fed a starter diet without rye for the first 3 weeks of life. From weeks 4 to 14 the goslings consumed the following diets: control group (C) without rye; experimental groups R, RE and HRE diets containing: 15% (R and RE) or 20% (HRE) rye between weeks 4 and 8 of life and 30% (R and RE) or 40% (HRE) rye between 9 and 14 weeks of life. The diets of groups RE and HRE were supplemented with 1 kg/tonne of the enzyme preparations, Ryezyme (4-8 weeks) and Bio-Feed Plus (9-14 weeks). The diets were rationed, total consumption of all diets between 4 and 14 weeks of life was 20 kg per bird on average, additionally the geese consumed 33.5 kg of forage per bird. At the age of 8 weeks the average live body weight (LBW) of goslings fed the rye diet unsupplemented with enzymes (group R) was lower than of controls, those fed rye diets supplemented with enzyme preparation (groups RE and HRE) higher (P^0.05). At the age of 14 weeks there were no significant differences in LBW between groups.