The ideal way to correct erratic body weights in Broiler Breeders is by GRADING the flock into different groups according to their body weights. This is a practical approach to restore uniformity over a certain period. As a healthy practice, most Breeder companies recommend just one, yet thorough grading around the 28th day in order to correct the inequalities that may show up during the first few weeks and thus gradually lead the flock to a healthy uniformity. Unfortunately, on many farms flock Grading is misused by some flock managers as a license to mess up the body weights through poor management, with the hope of correcting them later at frequent intervals. If, on the other hand, the farm manager scrupulously understands grading as a valuable tool for correcting management errors, he could be more proactive and concentrate on the basics of management to avoid these needless lapses, which involve additional costs in the form of feed and time, as well as irreparable damage to the physiology of the birds. One very important factor which has to be borne in mind while working out the revised plan for birds that have deviated from standards is to take into account the erratic pattern of weekly gain that birds have thus far experienced in order to make a smooth, but timely transition to the newly worked out standard curve. Very often, the body weights fall well below standard during the growing period. Many managers then resort to ‘tinkering’ in order to push up the weights to meet the standard within the shortest time possible, following no proper plan or schedule.
Do not forget that such birds, by virtue of being underweight in the early stages of growth, have ended up with a system that has the capacity of gaining only around 70 to 80 grams a week under a standard of around 110 to 120 grams. As we saw earlier, the result of overfeeding small birds is that they may succeed in attaining the standard weights at a given age but, given the poor skeletal frames for their age, they will be able to deposit only a limited amount of flesh on this stunted frame and will therefore gain weight more by way of fat rather than muscles. Breeder experts and knowledgeable flock managers will tell you that the right approach to take these small birds back to the standard is to plot out a revised plan on a graph whereby the weight gains are gradually raised every week above the actuals, so that over a period of time birds can go through a gradual and smooth recovery and catch up to the standard curve. This type of smooth correction allows for a recovery of both the skeletal frame size, to whatever extent is possible, and healthy fleshing.