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Show Poultry Co-op. v Establishes Research Fund By Dr. R. H. Walker The Utah Poultry Producers Cooperative Co-operative Association has recently established a research fund to be used by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Ex-periment Station for special studies stud-ies of poultry feeds and poultry nutrition problems. These studies will be directed by Professor Byron Alder, head of the department of Poultry Husbandry at the College. He will be assisted by Dr. Russell A. Rasmussen, animal nutritionist for the Agricultural Experiment Station. The investigations to be conducted con-ducted immediately will be designed design-ed to determine the value of certain cer-tain vitamin products in the ration.' ra-tion.' Such commercial products as bickem and vitagrass will be tested test-ed as supplements to the regular constituents of proven mash and grain feeds. Pens of 50 laying hens will be used for each of the feed combinations to be studied. Records will be kept of egg production, pro-duction, egg weights, mortality of hens, and chemical analyses will be made of the various feeds being investigated. These studies should assist in clarifying some of our important poultry nutrition problems. The poultry industry in Utah is one of our most important cash income producing agricultural industries. The grass farm value of chickens in Utah in 1939 was $1,048,000 and for eggs $4,271,000 or a total value of $5,339,000. Hence It is apparent that anything that can be done to increase the efficiency of production produc-tion in our laying flocks will do much to raise the cash income on Utah farms. |