High feed costs are part of any broiler rearing enterprise and continuous effort is required to help overcome this problem. The use of a feed expander may be beneficial in improving bird performance and thus increasing the profitability of broiler meat production. Four experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of birds fed expanded feed in relation to the performance of birds fed non-expanded feed. The effect of feeding birds expanded feed was also tested under heat stress conditions. In this experiment, a significant improvement in cumulative feed conversion ratio (CFCR) was observed for birds fed expanded feed (Chapter 3). Pellet size influenced bird performance as birds fed a 3.2 mm non-expanded feed had a better cumulative FCR than the non-expanded 4.5 mm pellets, and this CFCR did not differ significantly from that in birds fed 3.2 mm expanded pellets (Chapter 4). There is, however, an improvement in the cumulative FCR to two weeks of age in birds fed expanded feed, over that in birds fed non-expanded feed, indicating that expanding of feed improves nutrient availability to the young broiler with a partially developed digestive tract. The effects of expanding feed on the body weight of birds were not consistent between experiments. This might be attributed to expanding temperature, as the feed in Chapters 3 and 4 was expanded at 90°C and not at higher temperatures as in the other chapters. Expanding feed at 90°C may not allow proper starch gelatinisation and alteration of nutrient availability. Expanded feed had better pellet durability than non-expanded feed and there were no significant negative effects on vitamin recovery, enzyme stability and nutrients when feed was expanded at temperatures between 95 and 1 05°C. Pellet quality increased with an increase in expanding temperature. Expanding of broiler feed led to a significant improvement in lipid digestibility (Chapter 6). Expanding of feed at 105°C is recommended as feed expanded at this temperatures tend to have significantly higher AMEn values for broilers than non-expanded feed. / Dissertation (MSc(Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted

The South African poultry industry is a large part of the agricultural industry and a very important contributor to the Agriculture’s Gross Domestic Product. Furthermore, this industry is expanding and very good growth is predicted for the next decade. This growth will take place in the formal as well as the informal segments of the industry. The informal segment holds a lot of potential for suppliers to supply in their growing needs. Due to the fact that broiler feed is seen as a large contributor to the total cost of broiler production, it is considered very important factor. If feed suppliers want to focus on the informal market, they need to understand the differences between commercial farmers and small–scale farmers and specifically the different needs of small–scale farmers. To develop a strategy to utilize the opportunities in the informal market, it is necessary to understand all the factors that influence the purchase behaviour of these farmers. A model of stimulus response is used to define the factors that may influence purchase behaviour. The factors that seemed important from the literature study are market and other stimuli. The market stimuli consist of product, price, promotion and place. The product aspect could further be divided into quality aspects, brand equity, and additional services that accompany the product. Other stimuli that could influence purchase behaviour are economic conditions, special event, climatic condition and the influence of culture. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used on the data to determine which factors influence the small–scale farmers’ purchase behaviour. While the Kaiser Meyer Olkin measure, Bartlett’s test of shericity and Cronbach Apha were used to determine if the data is suitable to do a factor analysis on. Factor analysis was done to determine which factors are the most important. The seven significant factors that influence the purchase behaviour of small–scale farmers are: * Value for money and opportunity. * Perceived brand value. * Customer support and service. * Consensus on available quality. * Brand loyalty. * Feed price at the reseller. * Bag size. More research on this topic in a larger geographical area is required. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The South African poultry industry is a large part of the agricultural industry and a very important contributor to the Agriculture’s Gross Domestic Product. Furthermore, this industry is expanding and very good growth is predicted for the next decade. This growth will take place in the formal as well as the informal segments of the industry. The informal segment holds a lot of potential for suppliers to supply in their growing needs. Due to the fact that broiler feed is seen as a large contributor to the total cost of broiler production, it is considered very important factor. If feed suppliers want to focus on the informal market, they need to understand the differences between commercial farmers and small–scale farmers and specifically the different needs of small–scale farmers. To develop a strategy to utilize the opportunities in the informal market, it is necessary to understand all the factors that influence the purchase behaviour of these farmers. A model of stimulus response is used to define the factors that may influence purchase behaviour. The factors that seemed important from the literature study are market and other stimuli. The market stimuli consist of product, price, promotion and place. The product aspect could further be divided into quality aspects, brand equity, and additional services that accompany the product. Other stimuli that could influence purchase behaviour are economic conditions, special event, climatic condition and the influence of culture. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used on the data to determine which factors influence the small–scale farmers’ purchase behaviour. While the Kaiser Meyer Olkin measure, Bartlett’s test of shericity and Cronbach Apha were used to determine if the data is suitable to do a factor analysis on. Factor analysis was done to determine which factors are the most important. The seven significant factors that influence the purchase behaviour of small–scale farmers are: * Value for money and opportunity. * Perceived brand value. * Customer support and service. * Consensus on available quality. * Brand loyalty. * Feed price at the reseller. * Bag size. More research on this topic in a larger geographical area is required. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.