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Full Research Article

Economizing Duck Feed using Broken Rice for Meat Production in White Pekin Ducks

P
Prafulla Kumar Naik1,*
R
Rajalaxmi Behera1
B
Bijaya Kumar Swain1
S
Santosh Kumar Sahoo1
D
Dhirendra Kumar1
1Regional Station, ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha, India.

ABSTRACT

Background: Popularity of duck farming and duck meat has hiked in last few decades. Balanced nutrition at an economic price can enhance profitability from this sector. Therefore, the present study analysed the effect of economizing duck feed by replacing wheat with graded doses of broken rice (a cheaper alternative to wheat) on growth, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics in White Pekin ducks during starter phase.

Methods: White Pekin ducklings (240-day-old) were allotted into 3 experimental groups, each having 4 replicates, with 20 ducklings in each. Three types of experimental feeds were prepared, no broken rice (control: BR-0) and treatment 1- broken rice substituting 25 per cent (BR-25) and treatment 2 substituting 50 per cent wheat (BR-50) by broken rice. The experimental feeds were fed to the ducks for eight weeks.

Result: Substitution of wheat with graded doses of broken rice exhibited non-significant impact on daily feed intake, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics of the Pekin ducks under study. The 8th week body weight ranged from 2195.53±36.78 g (BR-50) to 2248.04±18.26 (BR-25) and was consistent among the groups. The cumulative feed intake was significantly lower in the BR-50 group during the early (1st and 2nd week) and late phase (5th- 8th week). The cumulative feed intake at 8th week ranged from 5901.58±54.44 in BR-50 to 6334.09±18.00 in BR-0. The cumulative FCR at the early phase (1st, 2nd week) and late phase (7th and 8th week) was significantly lower (P<0.05) in the BR-50 group compared to the BR-0 group. The duck feed cost (cost/kg) reduced by 0.56 and by 1.43 Indian rupees by replacing 25% (BR-25) and 50% of the wheat with broken rice (BR-50), respectively. Cost of production per kg live weight of the ducks was significantly (P<0.05) reduced by 10.56 Indian rupees by substituting 50% of wheat with broken rice. Our findings concluded that replacing wheat with broken rice up to a 50% level in feed can potentially economize meat production costs in white pekin ducks without negatively impacting the nutrient digestibility, growth and carcass characteristics.

INTRODUCTION

Duck farming is an imperative element of the global poultry industry (Naik et al., 2022a). The duck egg and meat are loaded with essential amino acids and several micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. In current scenario, global duck production has successfully fetched attention of farmers, enterprises and researchers as an alternate poultry species to chicken. Asia contributes nearly 84.2% of global duck meat production (Biswas et al., 2019). Duck meat and eggs are valuable components in Asian cuisine (Baeza and Huang, 2022). Duck farming is a viable option for marginal farmers, serving as a good income source for them. In Indian context, the appetite for animal protein like eggs and meat is escalating swiftly. The compound annual growth rate of crops and cereals is 2.0 to 2.1% while that of eggs and meat is 7.5% (Anonymous, 2025). Duck population in India (33.51 million) was hiked by 42.36% in 2019 compared to the previous census, which documents budding demand of duck and duck farming in India (Anonymous, 2019). However, the major cost involved in duck farming is the feed cost indicating the scope of making the duck production system more cost-effective and sustainable by economizing the feeding.  As per reports by earlier workers, the backyard system of duck rearing with supplementation of readily available local feed ingredients is popular in Indian villages (Swain et al., 2018; Mishra et al., 2021; Naik et al., 2023; Swain et al., 2023).  Nutrition has a major role in exploiting the full genetic potential of the ducks for optimal production. Provision of cost-effective and balanced ration can correct the deficiency as well as facilitate economic production. In coastal belts of India, rice farming is predominant. When paddy rice is processed to white rice, around 15% turns into broken rice or powder (Buggenhout et al., 2013). Broken rice (locally known as rice kani) is not used by human and mainly discarded as animal feed. Therefore, broken rice is abundantly available locally at a cheaper price in the coastal regions of India. Owing to the increased cost of wheat, farmers prefer to feed the locally available broken rice to their ducks, which not only reduces feed cost but also the competition for wheat as a staple food among man and animals. However, literature on the impact of feeding of broken rice to ducks, principally in the starter phase, is limited. Among different duck breeds, White Pekin ducks are the most popular meat production. Thus, the objective of the present study was to assess the impact of economizing duck feed by replacing wheat with graded doses of broken rice on growth, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics of White Pekin ducks during the starter phase.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Birds and housing
 
The present study took place at the Institute Duck farm, ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Regional Station, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India on day-old White Pekin ducklings (N=240). The Pekin ducklings were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: with each group having of 80 ducklings, allotted in four replicates having 20 ducklings in each. The ducklings were housed in deep litter using rice husk litter material under standard management practices and necessary health care measures as per the institute norms.
 
Experimental design and diets
 
Three different cereal-based experimental diets were prepared: (i) with 100% wheat and no broken rice (BR-0); (ii) with 75% wheat and 25% broken rice (BR-25) and (iii) with wheat and broken rice in equal ratio (BR-50) presented in Table 1. The ducklings were offered the iso-nitrogenous (18.33-18.37, %CP) and iso-caloric (2614-2661, ME, Kcal/kg). experimental diets for a period of eight weeks and birds were reared under standard management practices. The details of the experimental diets along with their chemical compositions are depicted in Table 2.

Table 1: Physical compositions (%) of the experimental diets.



Table 2: Chemical compositions (on % DM basis) of the experimental diets.


 
Measurement of growth and feed efficiency
 
The body weight, weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were recorded at weekly interval. Mortality data was recorded as per occurrence and FCR was calculated accordingly.
 
Determination of metabolisability of nutrients
 
At the end of the feeding experiment, ducks were kept in individual cages and a metabolism trial was conducted with a 4-day collection period. The birds were offered a known quantity of feeds every day and the faces voided over 24 hours were collected. For dry matter and nitrogen estimation, daily aliquots of excreta were collected separately after mixing it well. The faecal samples were dried in a hot air oven at 70°C for 72 h to estimate their dry matter (Sahoo et al., 2014). Faecal samples were kept in 25% sulphuric acid in duplicate to estimate the faecal nitrogen (Pathak and Kamra, 1999). The feed sample, residues and faecal samples were analysed using proximate principles using the standard procedure (AOAC, 2005). The nutrient intake minus nutrient voided was calculated as the metabolisability of the corresponding nutrient.
 
Carcass characteristics study
 
At the end of the experiment, two ducks per replicate were selected (body weight close to the average of the corresponding group) and slaughtered following standard procedure. After evisceration, key carcass characteristics like weight of ducks, internal organs (heart, liver and gizzard), the eviscerated carcass and cut-up parts like leg, breast, back, wing etc. were measured.
 
Statistical analysis
 
The present study followed a completely randomized design (CRD). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed for the analysis of the data (Snedecor and Cochran, 1994) and the comparisons among means were analyzed by DMRT- Duncan’s multiple range test (Duncan, 1955). 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The substitution of wheat by broken rice in the diet of Pekin ducks had a significant effect (P<0.05) on body weight in 1st and 2nd weeks (Table 3). The mean body weight of the BR-25 group at first and second week was significantly higher than BR-0 and and BR-50 groups. The replacement of wheat by broken rice exhibited a non-significant effect on the body weight of the ducks from the third week onwards. These finding is in consonance with the findings of a study that documented a non-significant effect of replacing a corn-wheat-based complete diet with paddy rice on duck growth (He et al., 2024). In other poultry species like goose replacing corn with broken rice did not influence the body weight (Chen et al., 2020).

Table 3: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on weekly body weight (g) of ducks.


       
The 6th week body weight of the Pekin ducks was highest in BR-0 groups. In contrast to the present study, a higher (Sahoo et al., 2014; Farhat and Chavez, 2000) and a lower 6th week body weight was reported by Bhuyian et al., 2005. The mean body weight at the 8th week was highest in the BR-25 group and was similar among the groups. Several earlier studies have documented a higher 8th-week body weight of Pekin ducks (Solomon et al., 2006; Solomon et al., 2007; Kuzniacka and Adamski, 2019) while a lower body weight was also reported (Bhuyian et al., 2005; Rabbani et al., 2019; Ghosh et al., 2022; Naik et al., 2025). The body weight gain during 4-6 weeks was higher than that during 6-8 weeks and the gain during the 6th-8th week was highest in the BR-25 group.
       
The daily feed intake (DFI) at 6th and 8th week of age was consistent among the groups (Table 4). The cumulative feed intake (CFI) up to 6th and 8th weeks in BR-25 and BR-0 groups was comparable, while both were significantly higher than the BR-50 group (Table 5). Similar to the present findings, Filgueira et al. (2014) also observed a non-significant effect on feed intake and weight gain when corn was replaced with broken rice in the diet of meat-type quails. The cumulative feed conversion ratio (FCR) up to 6th week was similar among the groups while the cumulative FCR up to 8th week was significantly lower in BR-50 group (Table 6). Cumulative FCR at the 1st and 2nd week was significantly lower in the BR-25 and BR-50 groups. Similar to the present findings Naik et al. (2022b, 2024) reported that substituting 50% of wheat with broken rice significantly lowered the feed conversion ratio (FCR) per dozen of eggs produced in Pekin layers.  Other studies on ducks (Naik et al., 2023) and quails (Filgueira et al., 2014) reported that substitutions of wheat by broken rice for economizing the feed cost maintained the performance without negative impacts. 

Table 4: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on daily feed intake of ducks (under DM basis).



Table 5: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on cumulative feed intake (g) of White Pekin ducks (under DM basis).



Table 6: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on feed conversion ratio (FCR) in White Pekin ducks.


       
The metabolisability (%) of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract and crude fibre were similar among the groups (Table 7). The N balance was comparable across the groups. Comparable to the present findings, previous researches indicated  non-significant effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on nutrient metabolisability (Naik et al., 2021), nitrogen balance and nutrient digestibility (Naik et al., 2022b; Naik et al., 2021; Naik et al., 2020). However, the nutrient metabolisability in the present study was lower than several earlier reports (Sahoo et al., 2014; Naik et al., 2025; Naik et al., 2022b; Joshi et al., 2015; Mohanty et al., 2015). These differences may be due to variations in duck breeds and feed ingredients used different experiments.

Table 7: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on dry matter intake, nutrient metabolism, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and economics.


       
Substituting wheat with broken rice did not affect weight of internal organs, eviscerated carcass and cut–up parts (Table 8). Back was the highest cut-up part followed by breast and leg. Similar to our findings a non-significant variations in the liver, pancreas spleen indices were observed among the ducks fed with paddy rice and group fed with corn-wheat based complete diet (He et al., 2024). Broken rice substitution did not affect the dressing percentage and cut-up parts in meat type quails (Filgueira et al., 2014; Ashour et al., 2015) and muscle percentage (breast and leg) in geese (Liu et al., 2025). Silva et al., (2020) confirmed the economic benefits of broken rice replacing corn up to a level of 50% in the quail diet.

Table 8: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on carcass characteristics.


       
The cost of feed/kg was comparable among the groups (Table 7). Production cost (Rs)/Kg live bird was significantly (P<0.05) lower in BR-50 group (Rs. 100.37) compared to BR-0 (Rs. 110.93) and BR-25 (Rs. 107.67) group. This indicated that by replacing 50% of the wheat by broken rice, production cost per kg live weight of the ducks can be reduced by 10.56 Indian rupees, fetching more profits to the farmers. Some previous studies reported that diet replacing 50% of wheat by broken rice was the most cost-effecting considering production cost per egg in White Pekin layers (Naik et al., 2022b; Naik et al., 2024).

CONCLUSION

Our study found that substituting wheat with broken rice had non-significant effect on the daily feed intake, nutrient metabolism, body weight and carcass characteristics of the White Pekin ducks. The high energy content of broken rice successfully compensated for the energy from wheat. The study concluded that substitution of wheat with broken rice up to a level a level of 50% as a cheaper alternative in the diets of White Pekin ducks during starter phase can effectively reduce the production cost without negatively impacting the feed intake, nutrient metabolism, growth and carcass characteristics of the ducks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The research was supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Government of India.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

REFERENCES


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  25. Naik, P.K., Swain, B.K., Sahoo, S.K., Kumar, D., Mishra, S.K. and Beura, C.K. (2024). Performance of White Pekin ducks fed wheat or broken rice based diets during mid phase of laying under intensive rearing system. Indian Journal of Animal Research. 58(2): 298-301. doi: 10.18805/IJAR.B-4870.

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  27. Pathak, N.N. and Kamra, D.N. (1999). Method of Conducting Digestion/Metabolism Trial on Experimental Animals. In: Laboratory Manual of Animal Nutrition [(Eds) Sastry, V.R.B., Kamra, D.N. and Pathak. N.N)]. Centre of Advanced Studies, Division of Animal Nutrition, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, UP, India. Pp. 131-136.

  28. Rabbani, M.A.G., Das, S.C., Ali, M.A., Hassan, M.R. and Ali, M.Y. (2019). Growth performance of Pekin ducks under full confinement system fed diets with various nutrient concentrations. Asian Journal of Biological Sciences. 12: 717-723.  

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  30. Silva, W.A., Pereira, A.A., Junior, D.M.L., Lima, C.B., Almeida, J.R.S., Silva, E.B. A., Santos, G.S. and Junior, R.F.B. (2020). Inclusion of broken rice in meat-quail diets at different ages. Acta Scientiarum Animal Sciences. 43(1): e52074.  doi: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v43i1.52074.

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    Full Research Article

    Economizing Duck Feed using Broken Rice for Meat Production in White Pekin Ducks

    P
    Prafulla Kumar Naik1,*
    R
    Rajalaxmi Behera1
    B
    Bijaya Kumar Swain1
    S
    Santosh Kumar Sahoo1
    D
    Dhirendra Kumar1
    1Regional Station, ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha, India.

    ABSTRACT

    Background: Popularity of duck farming and duck meat has hiked in last few decades. Balanced nutrition at an economic price can enhance profitability from this sector. Therefore, the present study analysed the effect of economizing duck feed by replacing wheat with graded doses of broken rice (a cheaper alternative to wheat) on growth, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics in White Pekin ducks during starter phase.

    Methods: White Pekin ducklings (240-day-old) were allotted into 3 experimental groups, each having 4 replicates, with 20 ducklings in each. Three types of experimental feeds were prepared, no broken rice (control: BR-0) and treatment 1- broken rice substituting 25 per cent (BR-25) and treatment 2 substituting 50 per cent wheat (BR-50) by broken rice. The experimental feeds were fed to the ducks for eight weeks.

    Result: Substitution of wheat with graded doses of broken rice exhibited non-significant impact on daily feed intake, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics of the Pekin ducks under study. The 8th week body weight ranged from 2195.53±36.78 g (BR-50) to 2248.04±18.26 (BR-25) and was consistent among the groups. The cumulative feed intake was significantly lower in the BR-50 group during the early (1st and 2nd week) and late phase (5th- 8th week). The cumulative feed intake at 8th week ranged from 5901.58±54.44 in BR-50 to 6334.09±18.00 in BR-0. The cumulative FCR at the early phase (1st, 2nd week) and late phase (7th and 8th week) was significantly lower (P<0.05) in the BR-50 group compared to the BR-0 group. The duck feed cost (cost/kg) reduced by 0.56 and by 1.43 Indian rupees by replacing 25% (BR-25) and 50% of the wheat with broken rice (BR-50), respectively. Cost of production per kg live weight of the ducks was significantly (P<0.05) reduced by 10.56 Indian rupees by substituting 50% of wheat with broken rice. Our findings concluded that replacing wheat with broken rice up to a 50% level in feed can potentially economize meat production costs in white pekin ducks without negatively impacting the nutrient digestibility, growth and carcass characteristics.

    INTRODUCTION

    Duck farming is an imperative element of the global poultry industry (Naik et al., 2022a). The duck egg and meat are loaded with essential amino acids and several micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. In current scenario, global duck production has successfully fetched attention of farmers, enterprises and researchers as an alternate poultry species to chicken. Asia contributes nearly 84.2% of global duck meat production (Biswas et al., 2019). Duck meat and eggs are valuable components in Asian cuisine (Baeza and Huang, 2022). Duck farming is a viable option for marginal farmers, serving as a good income source for them. In Indian context, the appetite for animal protein like eggs and meat is escalating swiftly. The compound annual growth rate of crops and cereals is 2.0 to 2.1% while that of eggs and meat is 7.5% (Anonymous, 2025). Duck population in India (33.51 million) was hiked by 42.36% in 2019 compared to the previous census, which documents budding demand of duck and duck farming in India (Anonymous, 2019). However, the major cost involved in duck farming is the feed cost indicating the scope of making the duck production system more cost-effective and sustainable by economizing the feeding.  As per reports by earlier workers, the backyard system of duck rearing with supplementation of readily available local feed ingredients is popular in Indian villages (Swain et al., 2018; Mishra et al., 2021; Naik et al., 2023; Swain et al., 2023).  Nutrition has a major role in exploiting the full genetic potential of the ducks for optimal production. Provision of cost-effective and balanced ration can correct the deficiency as well as facilitate economic production. In coastal belts of India, rice farming is predominant. When paddy rice is processed to white rice, around 15% turns into broken rice or powder (Buggenhout et al., 2013). Broken rice (locally known as rice kani) is not used by human and mainly discarded as animal feed. Therefore, broken rice is abundantly available locally at a cheaper price in the coastal regions of India. Owing to the increased cost of wheat, farmers prefer to feed the locally available broken rice to their ducks, which not only reduces feed cost but also the competition for wheat as a staple food among man and animals. However, literature on the impact of feeding of broken rice to ducks, principally in the starter phase, is limited. Among different duck breeds, White Pekin ducks are the most popular meat production. Thus, the objective of the present study was to assess the impact of economizing duck feed by replacing wheat with graded doses of broken rice on growth, nutrient metabolisability and carcass characteristics of White Pekin ducks during the starter phase.

    MATERIALS AND METHODS

    Birds and housing
     
    The present study took place at the Institute Duck farm, ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Regional Station, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India on day-old White Pekin ducklings (N=240). The Pekin ducklings were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: with each group having of 80 ducklings, allotted in four replicates having 20 ducklings in each. The ducklings were housed in deep litter using rice husk litter material under standard management practices and necessary health care measures as per the institute norms.
     
    Experimental design and diets
     
    Three different cereal-based experimental diets were prepared: (i) with 100% wheat and no broken rice (BR-0); (ii) with 75% wheat and 25% broken rice (BR-25) and (iii) with wheat and broken rice in equal ratio (BR-50) presented in Table 1. The ducklings were offered the iso-nitrogenous (18.33-18.37, %CP) and iso-caloric (2614-2661, ME, Kcal/kg). experimental diets for a period of eight weeks and birds were reared under standard management practices. The details of the experimental diets along with their chemical compositions are depicted in Table 2.

    Table 1: Physical compositions (%) of the experimental diets.



    Table 2: Chemical compositions (on % DM basis) of the experimental diets.


     
    Measurement of growth and feed efficiency
     
    The body weight, weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were recorded at weekly interval. Mortality data was recorded as per occurrence and FCR was calculated accordingly.
     
    Determination of metabolisability of nutrients
     
    At the end of the feeding experiment, ducks were kept in individual cages and a metabolism trial was conducted with a 4-day collection period. The birds were offered a known quantity of feeds every day and the faces voided over 24 hours were collected. For dry matter and nitrogen estimation, daily aliquots of excreta were collected separately after mixing it well. The faecal samples were dried in a hot air oven at 70°C for 72 h to estimate their dry matter (Sahoo et al., 2014). Faecal samples were kept in 25% sulphuric acid in duplicate to estimate the faecal nitrogen (Pathak and Kamra, 1999). The feed sample, residues and faecal samples were analysed using proximate principles using the standard procedure (AOAC, 2005). The nutrient intake minus nutrient voided was calculated as the metabolisability of the corresponding nutrient.
     
    Carcass characteristics study
     
    At the end of the experiment, two ducks per replicate were selected (body weight close to the average of the corresponding group) and slaughtered following standard procedure. After evisceration, key carcass characteristics like weight of ducks, internal organs (heart, liver and gizzard), the eviscerated carcass and cut-up parts like leg, breast, back, wing etc. were measured.
     
    Statistical analysis
     
    The present study followed a completely randomized design (CRD). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed for the analysis of the data (Snedecor and Cochran, 1994) and the comparisons among means were analyzed by DMRT- Duncan’s multiple range test (Duncan, 1955). 

    RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

    The substitution of wheat by broken rice in the diet of Pekin ducks had a significant effect (P<0.05) on body weight in 1st and 2nd weeks (Table 3). The mean body weight of the BR-25 group at first and second week was significantly higher than BR-0 and and BR-50 groups. The replacement of wheat by broken rice exhibited a non-significant effect on the body weight of the ducks from the third week onwards. These finding is in consonance with the findings of a study that documented a non-significant effect of replacing a corn-wheat-based complete diet with paddy rice on duck growth (He et al., 2024). In other poultry species like goose replacing corn with broken rice did not influence the body weight (Chen et al., 2020).

    Table 3: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on weekly body weight (g) of ducks.


           
    The 6th week body weight of the Pekin ducks was highest in BR-0 groups. In contrast to the present study, a higher (Sahoo et al., 2014; Farhat and Chavez, 2000) and a lower 6th week body weight was reported by Bhuyian et al., 2005. The mean body weight at the 8th week was highest in the BR-25 group and was similar among the groups. Several earlier studies have documented a higher 8th-week body weight of Pekin ducks (Solomon et al., 2006; Solomon et al., 2007; Kuzniacka and Adamski, 2019) while a lower body weight was also reported (Bhuyian et al., 2005; Rabbani et al., 2019; Ghosh et al., 2022; Naik et al., 2025). The body weight gain during 4-6 weeks was higher than that during 6-8 weeks and the gain during the 6th-8th week was highest in the BR-25 group.
           
    The daily feed intake (DFI) at 6th and 8th week of age was consistent among the groups (Table 4). The cumulative feed intake (CFI) up to 6th and 8th weeks in BR-25 and BR-0 groups was comparable, while both were significantly higher than the BR-50 group (Table 5). Similar to the present findings, Filgueira et al. (2014) also observed a non-significant effect on feed intake and weight gain when corn was replaced with broken rice in the diet of meat-type quails. The cumulative feed conversion ratio (FCR) up to 6th week was similar among the groups while the cumulative FCR up to 8th week was significantly lower in BR-50 group (Table 6). Cumulative FCR at the 1st and 2nd week was significantly lower in the BR-25 and BR-50 groups. Similar to the present findings Naik et al. (2022b, 2024) reported that substituting 50% of wheat with broken rice significantly lowered the feed conversion ratio (FCR) per dozen of eggs produced in Pekin layers.  Other studies on ducks (Naik et al., 2023) and quails (Filgueira et al., 2014) reported that substitutions of wheat by broken rice for economizing the feed cost maintained the performance without negative impacts. 

    Table 4: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on daily feed intake of ducks (under DM basis).



    Table 5: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on cumulative feed intake (g) of White Pekin ducks (under DM basis).



    Table 6: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on feed conversion ratio (FCR) in White Pekin ducks.


           
    The metabolisability (%) of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract and crude fibre were similar among the groups (Table 7). The N balance was comparable across the groups. Comparable to the present findings, previous researches indicated  non-significant effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on nutrient metabolisability (Naik et al., 2021), nitrogen balance and nutrient digestibility (Naik et al., 2022b; Naik et al., 2021; Naik et al., 2020). However, the nutrient metabolisability in the present study was lower than several earlier reports (Sahoo et al., 2014; Naik et al., 2025; Naik et al., 2022b; Joshi et al., 2015; Mohanty et al., 2015). These differences may be due to variations in duck breeds and feed ingredients used different experiments.

    Table 7: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on dry matter intake, nutrient metabolism, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and economics.


           
    Substituting wheat with broken rice did not affect weight of internal organs, eviscerated carcass and cut–up parts (Table 8). Back was the highest cut-up part followed by breast and leg. Similar to our findings a non-significant variations in the liver, pancreas spleen indices were observed among the ducks fed with paddy rice and group fed with corn-wheat based complete diet (He et al., 2024). Broken rice substitution did not affect the dressing percentage and cut-up parts in meat type quails (Filgueira et al., 2014; Ashour et al., 2015) and muscle percentage (breast and leg) in geese (Liu et al., 2025). Silva et al., (2020) confirmed the economic benefits of broken rice replacing corn up to a level of 50% in the quail diet.

    Table 8: Effect of replacing wheat with broken rice on carcass characteristics.


           
    The cost of feed/kg was comparable among the groups (Table 7). Production cost (Rs)/Kg live bird was significantly (P<0.05) lower in BR-50 group (Rs. 100.37) compared to BR-0 (Rs. 110.93) and BR-25 (Rs. 107.67) group. This indicated that by replacing 50% of the wheat by broken rice, production cost per kg live weight of the ducks can be reduced by 10.56 Indian rupees, fetching more profits to the farmers. Some previous studies reported that diet replacing 50% of wheat by broken rice was the most cost-effecting considering production cost per egg in White Pekin layers (Naik et al., 2022b; Naik et al., 2024).

    CONCLUSION

    Our study found that substituting wheat with broken rice had non-significant effect on the daily feed intake, nutrient metabolism, body weight and carcass characteristics of the White Pekin ducks. The high energy content of broken rice successfully compensated for the energy from wheat. The study concluded that substitution of wheat with broken rice up to a level a level of 50% as a cheaper alternative in the diets of White Pekin ducks during starter phase can effectively reduce the production cost without negatively impacting the feed intake, nutrient metabolism, growth and carcass characteristics of the ducks.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

    The research was supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Government of India.

    CONFLICT OF INTEREST

    The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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