Influence of pellet length changes at 4, 5 and 6 weeks of age and two pellet diameters on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler finishers
Bibliographic record
Abstract
A 2 × 4 factorial arrangement of treatments was used to evaluate the effects of two pellet diameters and four pellet length–week combinations on the growth performance and carcass characteristics of broilers (days 22 to 42). A broiler finisher diet based on wheat and soybean meal was formulated. Pelleted diets were manufactured in four different sizes: (i) 3 mm diameter (D3) and 7 mm length (L7), (ii) D3, 9 mm length (L9), (iii) 4.76 mm diameter (D4.76), L7, (iv) D4.76, L9. The four pellet sizes were then used to develop eight feeding treatments: (i) D3 and L7 pellets during weeks 4, 5, and 6 (L777); (ii) D3 and L7 during weeks 4 and 5, and L9 during week 6 (L779); (iii) D3 and L7 during week 4, and L9 during weeks 5 and 6 (L799); (iv) D3 and L9 during weeks 4, 5, and 6 (L999); (v) D4.76 and L7 during weeks 4, 5 and 6 (L777); (vi) D4.76 and L7 during weeks 4 and 5, and L9 during week 6 (L779); (vii) D4.76 and L7 during week 4, and L9 during weeks 5 and 6 (L799); (viii) D4.76 and L9 during weeks 4, 5, and 6 (L999). Increasing the pellet length from 7 to 9 mm increased pellet hardness at both pellet diameters and improved the pellet durability index in D3 pellets but had no effect in D4.76 pellets. Over the whole trial period (days 22–42), birds fed D3 pellets were heavier and had lower feed per gain and higher carcass yield than those fed D4.76 pellets. Feeding length–week combination L999 resulted in lower carcass yield than L777, L779, and L799. Overall, it is concluded that whilst broiler finishers express a preference for a smaller pellet diameter, there is no negative effect of pellet length (up to 9 mm) on performance parameters even when offered as early as day 21.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".