Effects of Metabolizable Energy and Amino Acid Levels on Turkey Performance from Hatch to Marketing

Two experiments were conducted with growing turkeys from hatch to market examining the performance at various dietary energy and amino acid (AA) levels as well as the relationship between energy and essential amino acids at these energy levels. The results of the first experiment indicated that increasing ME alone improved feed efficiency (FE); however, it did not affect BW in either toms or hens. In addition, increasing ME alone resulted in better regulation of caloric intake (CI) in toms than in hens. The caloric efficiency (CE) (BW/CI) improved with the higherenergy diets. In a second experiment both AA and ME levels were changed. Using 95% of NRC amino acid levels depressed performance, whereas turkeys receiving 105 and 110% of the recommended AA levels had improved BW and FE until 6 wk. From 7 to 19 wk, increasing dietary AA levels decreased feed intake (FI). Increasing both AA and ME together did not, in all cases, produce the same effect as altering their levels independently.