The effect of photoperiod on performance of male Turkeys from 2 to 15 weeks of age

1. Two‐week‐old male turkeys were subjected, for 13 weeks, to four lighting treatments, 23 h/d, 14 h/d, 8 h/d, and a “step‐down” pattern in which light was reduced from 22 h/d by 1 h a week to 14 h/d.

2. Within each lighting treatment half the groups were offered food ad libitum and half received restricted amounts of food which were similar for all lighting treatments.

3. There were no statistically significant differences in final body weights or food conversion ratios between photoperiod treatments, although within groups fed ad libitum food conversion ratio was slightly superior for turkeys which had received 23 h light/d throughout.