Feed a broiler flock in three phases, not two. Starter carries the most protein and the smallest particle size, grower takes over once the frame is growing fastest, and finisher runs to sale on lower protein and higher energy. The protein percentage and energy density that matter are the ones printed on the bag you actually bought, and a vet or the miller confirms them for your flock.
Plenty of Ugandan broiler growers run two phases instead, starter for a month then finisher for a month. That is what the country's most widely copied broiler advice recommends, and it is wrong in both directions: it leaves a bird on starter protein it no longer needs, then drops it onto finisher energy before its frame is finished.
Broiler Feeding Runs in Three Phases, Not Two
The reason for phases is that a broiler's requirement changes faster than any other farm animal's. In week one it is building skeleton and gut on a body the size of a fist. By week five it is laying down muscle on a body twenty times heavier. A single ration cannot serve both without wasting protein at one end and starving it at the other.
MAAIF sets out two routes in the Poultry Training Manual it publishes for extension workers. On mash it gives broiler starter for the first four weeks, then broiler finisher from four weeks to marketing. On pellets it gives starter crumble for two weeks, grower pellets for two weeks, then finisher pellets from four weeks. The pellet route is the three phase programme, and it is the one the breeding companies also publish.
What the Feed Bag Label Decides, and What This Page Will Not Tell You
Before any number below: the bag label is the operative authority on what you are feeding. Commercial broiler feed sold in Uganda is formulated by the miller, and two bags both labelled broiler starter can carry different protein, different energy and different particle size. Read the label, keep it, and take it to a vet or an animal nutritionist if the flock is not performing.
This page states no ration formulation. It gives no kilograms of maize, no kilograms of soya cake, no premix inclusion rate and no mixing recipe, because a formulation copied off an unverifiable table and mixed in a drum on a Ugandan farm can put a whole batch on a deficient diet for six weeks. Home mixing is covered on the poultry feed formulation page, and the arithmetic there should be checked with a miller before a bird eats it.
It also states no medication. No coccidiostat, no antibiotic, no growth promoter, no rate and no interval. Anything medicated, in the feed or in the water, carries a withdrawal period before the birds can be sold for meat, and that period belongs to the product rather than to a page like this one. Ugandan survey evidence covering 374 commercial poultry farms puts a week or more on most of the antibiotic products in circulation, and finds about a quarter of broiler farms selling birds inside that window. Ask the vet who supplied the product and read what is printed on it.
Broiler Starter Feed: Protein High, Energy Lower, Particle Size Small
MAAIF's broiler section specifies starter at 23 percent crude protein and 3,100 kcal of metabolisable energy per kilogram, fed through the first four weeks on the mash route. Its section on improved meat birds specifies a standard broiler starter at 20 percent protein and 2,800 kcal, about 1 kg per bird to day 25 to 28, and then two paragraphs later restates 23 percent and 3,100.
The manual contradicts itself, so the honest publication is the range and its source rather than a pick. Ugandan official guidance puts broiler starter somewhere between 20 and 23 percent crude protein and between 2,800 and 3,100 kcal per kilogram. Cobb Vantress, publishing its own programme for the Cobb500, gives starter at 21 to 22 percent protein and 2,900 kcal per kilogram to day 12, which lands inside that range and nearer its middle. Whatever your bag says inside that band is defensible; a bag well below it is not.
| Phase | Days | Crude protein | Energy kcal/kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 0 to 12 | 21 to 22 pc | 2,900 |
| Grower 1 | 13 to 28 | 19 to 20 pc | 2,950 |
| Grower 2 | 29 to 39 | 18 to 19 pc | 3,050 |
| Finisher | 40 to 49 | 17 to 18 pc | 3,100 |
That table is Cobb's published programme for medium and large birds, quoted because it is the clearest sourced illustration of the direction of travel: protein falls step by step, energy climbs step by step. Read it as a breeding company's specification for its own genetics under its own recommended conditions, not as a Ugandan standard and not as a substitute for the bag in front of you. Cobb also puts starter intake at about 455 g per bird across those first twelve days.
Particle size matters as much as the analysis in week one. MAAIF's brooder instruction is a dust free crumbled ration or mash of the right particle size from a reliable source, spread on paper or trays in addition to the feeders. A chick that cannot pick up the particle does not eat it, and dust at the bottom of a bag is feed the flock leaves behind.
Broiler Grower Feed and What Skipping It Costs
The grower phase is the one Ugandan two phase programmes delete, and the cost of deleting it is paid twice. Hold the bird on starter past its need and you are buying protein it excretes rather than uses, which is money into the litter. Move it straight onto finisher instead and you drop protein by five or six points at the exact age its daily gain is accelerating hardest.
Look at where the gain actually is. MAAIF's own broiler mash table has a bird putting on about 330 g in week three, 435 g in week four and 460 g in week five. Weeks three to five are the growth engine of the whole cycle, and that is precisely the window a grower ration exists to serve. Cobb splits it further still, into two grower steps, because the requirement keeps moving inside it.
On the pellet route MAAIF names grower pellets for weeks three and four explicitly. On the mash route it does not name a grower mash, which is part of why Ugandan practice drifted to two phases. If your miller sells a broiler grower mash, use it across weeks three and four. If your miller only sells starter and finisher, the least bad version is to run starter to about day 21 and finisher from there, and to say so to the miller, because demand is how a third bag appears on the shelf.
Broiler Finisher Feed Through the Last Fortnight
Finisher feed carries the lowest protein and the highest energy of the three, and the bird eats more of it than of the other two combined. MAAIF puts broiler finisher at 20 percent protein and 3,100 kcal per kilogram in its broiler section, at 18 percent and 2,900 in its improved breed section, and at 21 percent in its own specification table. That is three different finisher figures printed inside one manual, which is worth knowing before you hold a miller to any of them. Cobb's own finisher runs lower again at 17 to 18 percent with 3,100 kcal. So the range across sourced guidance is roughly 17 to 21 percent protein, and the reason it can go as low as it does is that the bird is no longer building frame, it is finishing muscle.
Two things go wrong here on Ugandan farms. Finisher gets watered down, because it is the biggest bag bill of the cycle and it lands when the cash is thinnest. And the flock stays on it too long, waiting for a buyer, which is the most expensive week of feed a broiler ever eats.
How Much Feed a Broiler Eats Each Week
MAAIF's Table 33 gives broiler mash consumption for 100 birds week by week, which divides cleanly into a per bird figure. It totals 423 kg of mash per 100 birds to reach about 2,000 g at the end of week six, roughly 4.2 kg per bird. Its pellet table totals 293 kg per 100 birds to about 1,750 g at the end of week five, roughly 2.9 kg per bird.
| Week | Feed type | Per bird daily | Per 100 birds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starter | 20 g | 14 kg |
| 2 | Starter | 43 g | 30 kg |
| 3 | Starter | 81 g | 57 kg |
| 4 | Starter | 126 g | 88 kg |
| 5 | Finisher | 160 g | 112 kg |
| 6 | Finisher | 174 g | 122 kg |
Two uses for that table. It tells you how many bags to buy before the chicks arrive rather than mid cycle, and the feed requirement calculation does the same arithmetic for any flock size. And it gives you a ceiling to test any chart against: a broiler is not eating 250 g a day in week six, and a chart that says so has been copied wrong somewhere upstream.
Feed goes in without restriction on a meat bird. There is no reason to ration a broiler, since the whole economics depend on it reaching weight on schedule, and a rationed broiler is simply a slower broiler still eating maintenance feed. Where rationing happens on Ugandan farms it is a cash decision rather than a nutritional one, and the right response to short cash is a smaller batch next time, not a hungrier one now.
Feed Conversion Ratio Is the Number That Decides Whether the Batch Pays
Feed conversion ratio is kilograms of feed eaten per kilogram of live weight gained, and it is the only figure that reports on feed, water, temperature, density and health at the same time. MAAIF's mash route works out to a whole cycle conversion near 2.1, because 4.2 kg of feed produced a 2.0 kg bird. Its pellet route works out nearer 1.7. Aviagen's published objective for the Ross 308 is 1.531 at day 42 and Cobb's for the Cobb500 is 1.555, both under controlled conditions on recommended feed.
The number that changes behaviour, though, is not the whole cycle figure. It is the way conversion gets worse every single week, which you can read straight out of the ministry's own two columns.
Whole cycle conversion is what a bank or a buyer asks about. Weekly conversion is what tells you which week to sell in. The two together explain why broiler feeding is really a scheduling problem: every kilogram of gain costs more than the one before it, so the profitable week is the earliest week your buyer will accept, not the heaviest week your birds can reach. Where the weight lands week by week is on the broiler weight by age page.
Mash, Crumble and Pellet Broiler Feed Compared
MAAIF's two tables are the same genetics on two feed presentations, so the gap between them is the presentation. Pellets got a bird to 1,750 g by week five on 2.9 kg of feed. Mash got a bird to 2,000 g by week six on 4.2 kg. Pellets deliver better conversion and a shorter cycle at a lower final weight; mash delivers a heavier bird a week later on considerably more feed.
The physical reason is straightforward. A pellet is a complete mouthful, so the bird cannot pick out the bits it prefers and cannot leave the fine material behind. Mash lets a bird sort, and the fines it leaves are the part carrying the premix. Crumble is a pellet broken down to chick size, which is why it is the starter presentation in both Cobb's programme and MAAIF's pellet route.
Whether pellets pay on your farm is a bag price question against a per kilogram sale price, which this page will not put a figure on. Compare the current poultry feed price per bag against the chicken price you can actually get, for both routes, and run it out over a whole cycle. Whichever presentation you choose, avoid changing between bags mid phase: growth follows the worst bag in the sequence.
Why Broiler Feed Cost Moves With Maize and Soya
Broiler feed is mostly cereal and oilseed, so its price is a maize price and a soya price with milling on top. A survey of feed ingredient handling and compounding across ten Ugandan districts found white maize and maize bran to be the main energy sources and fishmeal the main protein source in chicken diets, with seasonal availability of feedstuffs reported as a live problem. That is the mechanism: when maize is dear or scarce, broiler feed follows it within weeks.
Which has an awkward consequence for a six week cycle. You commit to the chicks at one feed price and you pay the biggest part of the bill four to six weeks later at another. Growers who plan around it do the same three things. They price the whole cycle's feed before placing chicks rather than buying week to week. They buy the bulk of the finisher requirement early where storage allows it, since finisher is the largest tonnage. And they size the batch to the feed they can afford at the worse of two prices, not the better.
Watch the maize price and the soybean price alongside the feed price rather than the feed price alone, because those two move first and the bag follows.
Feed Adulteration and How to Check a Bag Before You Buy
Adulterated and substandard broiler feed is a real Ugandan problem and a hard one for a farmer to detect, because the things that matter most, crude protein and metabolisable energy, cannot be seen. The Ugandan feed compounding survey found most millers compounding their own feed, and that the quality checks farmers relied on included asking other farmers. That is the situation honestly described: a market where most buyers cannot test what they are buying.
The one measurable defence a smallholder has is the weekly weight. A flock that tracks its breed standard is being fed adequately, whatever the bag claims. A flock that falls away from the standard on adequate quantities of feed at correct temperature and density is telling you about the feed.
Aflatoxin in Maize Bran, and Storing Broiler Feed on the Farm
Aflatoxin is produced by Aspergillus moulds growing on cereals that were dried badly or stored damp, and Ugandan maize is a documented case. A review of mycotoxins in poultry feed across sub Saharan Africa reports aflatoxin occurrences between 64 and 100 percent in poultry feeds, with levels above the 20 microgram per kilogram regulatory limit reported in Uganda among other tropical countries, and all Ugandan maize samples in the study it drew on contaminated, at maximum levels reaching 150 micrograms per kilogram. A separate Ugandan study of feed from fish farms and feed factories in the Lake Victoria basin isolated toxigenic Aspergillus flavus from the feed itself, so the problem is not confined to the field: it sits in milling and storage inside Uganda too.
Maize bran deserves singling out because it is one of the two main energy sources in Ugandan chicken diets and it is the fraction where mould concentrates. It is also the cheapest thing a miller or a farmer can add more of.
What aflatoxin does to a broiler is worse than slow growth. The same review's compiled trial data shows aflatoxin B1 in broiler diets reducing body weight gain and feed intake, raising feed conversion ratio and raising mortality as levels climb. The finding that matters most for a Ugandan flock is this: aflatoxin B1 at levels found in ordinary poultry feed reduced antibody titres against Newcastle disease vaccine in broilers, and the doses that damage the immune response are lower than the doses that visibly slow growth. A flock can be quietly unvaccinated because of what is in its feed. MAAIF's own list of causes of vaccine failure includes immune suppression induced by mycotoxins, which is the ministry making the same connection.
Detailed handling guidance sits on the feed storage page, and the ingredient specific picture is on the maize bran in animal feeding page.
Water Is Half the Broiler Feeding Programme
Restrict water and you have restricted feed, because a bird that cannot drink stops eating. MAAIF states that at temperatures up to 25 degrees Celsius normal water consumption runs about 1.6 to 1.8 times feed intake, and that water must always be available when it is hotter. Take the per bird feed figures above, multiply by about 1.7, and that is what the drinkers have to deliver.
Which means water demand rises every week alongside feed, and drinker capacity that was ample in week two is a queue by week five. Drinker counts, heights and daily water volumes per bird sit on the broiler farming guide with the rest of the housing detail.
One thing specific to feeding: never let a drinker run dry, and never disinfect the drinkers on a day the flock is due a water route vaccination, because residual disinfectant destroys live vaccine. That collision between routine hygiene and the vaccination schedule catches a lot of farms.
Broiler Feeding Questions Ugandan Farmers Ask
How many kilograms of feed does one broiler eat in a cycle? Using MAAIF's own broiler mash table, about 4.2 kg per bird to reach roughly 2,000 g at the end of week six. On its pellet route, about 2.9 kg per bird to roughly 1,750 g at the end of week five. Any total you are quoted without the feed type and the sale week attached is not usable, because those two change the answer by nearly half.
How much does it cost to feed 100 broilers to market? Multiply the per bag price on the day you buy by the bag count the table above implies for your sale week, and do it twice, once at the current price and once assuming maize has gone up. Feed is the largest single line in a broiler budget and it moves between harvests, so a fixed figure quoted anywhere would mislead. The cost of raising 100 broilers page works the whole budget through and the poultry feed price page carries the moving number.
Can I feed broilers on maize bran and kitchen waste to save money? Not as the diet. Maize bran is an energy source with low protein, and a broiler has six weeks to reach a target weight with no capacity to make up a deficit later. Bran and household scraps belong in local chicken and dual purpose feeding, where a slower bird can absorb the inconsistency. On a broiler they simply produce a light bird that ate almost as much feed.
Should I give vitamins or electrolytes in the water? Ugandan practice commonly puts a chick formula and glucose in the supplementary drinkers on arrival, which MAAIF describes, at the manufacturer's stated rate. Beyond arrival and periods of heat stress, a vet is the right person to decide, since a bird on a properly formulated ration is already getting its vitamin and mineral requirement and more is not better.
Why is my flock eating well but not gaining weight? Work through it in order: is the feed the phase it should be, is the quantity actually reaching the birds rather than the litter, is water unrestricted, is the house too hot, is density too high, and has the flock had coccidiosis or a respiratory challenge. Feed quality is on that list but it is rarely first, and the weekly weight is what lets you tell one cause from another.
Is there a withdrawal period on ordinary broiler feed? Not on unmedicated feed. If the feed or the drinking water carried any medication, there is one, it is on the product label, and it is measured in days between the last dose and slaughter. Ugandan survey data puts most products in use at seven days or more. Confirm it with the vet who supplied it before you sell the flock, because the residue ends up in meat somebody eats.
Do I need a grower ration if my miller does not sell one? It is better to have one. Where only starter and finisher exist, running starter to about day 21 and finisher afterward is the least bad compromise, and it is worth asking the miller for a broiler grower, because a stocked shelf follows demand.
Check the current feed price with two millers in your own district before you place an order, since bag prices in Uganda move with the maize season and between towns. Where to find millers and stockists is listed under poultry feed suppliers, the poultry hub holds the rest of the broiler pages, and broiler feed requirements carries the nutrient specifications in more detail than a feeding guide needs.