Cassava Leaf Meal in Ghana Poultry Feed

The leaf and the root are two different feeds

A farmer who has read our cassava chip guide sometimes asks whether the leaves are worth picking off the same plants. The answer is yes, with conditions. Our cassava root guide is about energy: starch that can replace part of the maize. The leaf does the opposite job. It brings protein, pigment and minerals, and it brings a good deal of fibre with them.

The root is almost all starch with very little protein. The leaf, once dried, can carry a protein content well above anything a grain gives you, although it stays well below soya. The two parts of the plant are not interchangeable. A farmer who switches from chips to leaves expecting the same result will be disappointed on both counts.

What the leaf gives the bird: protein, pigment and fibre

On a dry-matter basis, well-made cassava leaf meal often comes in somewhere between roughly 20 and 30 per cent crude protein. That figure is useful, but the quality of the protein matters more. Leaf protein is short of methionine, one of the amino acids a bird cannot make for itself. Layers and broilers both need it. A ration that leans on leaf meal will need a methionine source added, usually from a supplement your nutritionist can recommend.

The leaf is also rich in carotenoids, the yellow and orange pigments that end up in egg yolks and in the skin of some breeds. A layer flock on a leaf-containing mash often shows deeper yolks within a few weeks. That is a real effect, and it is one of the reasons leaf meal is worth a look.

Fibre is the drawback. Cassava leaves are high in fibre, and the bird uses it poorly. Too much fibre fills the gut, lowers the energy the bird gets from the rest of the feed, and can loosen the droppings. The leaf is a supplement, never the base of the ration.

The cyanide question, and why the leaf is harder than the root

Cassava leaves carry cyanogenic glucosides, the same family of compounds found in the root. When the leaf is cut, chewed or crushed, an enzyme breaks these down and releases hydrogen cyanide. In many varieties the leaf holds more of the compound than the root does, and young, fast-growing leaves tend to be the richest. Plants stressed by drought can carry more again.

The good news is that the compound responds to the right process. Boiling removes and releases a large share. Thorough drying, in thin layers and until fully dry, does most of the rest. The bad news is that a half-dried leaf stays a hazard, because the enzyme can remain active in damp tissue and keep making cyanide while the meal sits in the bag.

Cooks who prepare cassava leaves as a vegetable in Ghana and across West Africa boil them for a long time before they eat them, and that long boil is the point. Birds deserve the same care. If you cannot describe how the leaves were processed, the meal stays out of the bin.

From the field to the meal: the steps that make it safe

There are two ways to get cassava leaf meal into a poultry ration. You can make it yourself, or you can buy it from a processor who has already done the work. Either way the steps are the same.

1. Pick young, healthy leaves from plants that are not stressed by drought. Strip the leaves from the stems and discard any that are yellowed, mouldy or insect damaged.
2. Wash them, then boil them in plenty of water until they are soft. Drain the water away, and never use the cooking water in the feed.
3. Spread the cooked leaves thinly on clean mesh in the sun, turning them often, until they are dry and crisp all the way through.
4. Cool them, then check for any soft or damp pieces and remove them.
5. Grind the dry leaf to a fine meal, sieve it, and store it sealed in a dry place.

The step most people skip is the drying. A leaf that looks dry on top can still be damp in the middle of the heap. Spread it thin, and if it will not dry in one or two sunny days, bring it in and finish it in a warm, ventilated store.

Buying cassava leaf meal: what to ask before you pay

Most cassava leaf meal in Ghana reaches the poultry farmer through a small processor, a feed shop or a market trader, and quality is uneven. A good seller can answer five questions without stopping to think. A seller who cannot answer them is telling you something, and it is not that the meal is cheap.

• How were the leaves processed: boiled, dried, and for how long?
• Has the meal been tested for cyanide, and can you see the result?
• What are the crude protein, fibre and moisture figures on the analysis sheet?
• When was it made, and how is it stored between the mill and the delivery?
• Can you take a small sample to test before you commit a bag to the whole flock?

Smell and colour help as well. A good meal is green-brown or olive, dry and crisp, with a hay-like smell. Dark brown, grey, clumped or sour meal is old or badly dried. Reject it and do not argue about the price.

Inclusion rates by stage: our starting ceilings

The table gives the highest share we would consider for well-processed, tested leaf meal, with the protein gap closed by a proper protein source. Start below the ceiling, and move up only after two weeks of clean growth or steady egg output.

These are not targets. They are the top of the range we would be comfortable with for a flock that is otherwise on a balanced feed. Lower the figure in hot weather, if the meal is coarse, or if you have no lab result to go on.

A worked example: 250 layers and a protein gap

Say you run 250 layers on a mash that is short of protein, and you want leaf meal to help close the gap. At roughly 110 grams of mash per bird a day, the house eats about 27.5 kilograms a day. At 3 per cent leaf meal, that is around 0.8 kilograms a day, or about 25 kilograms a month.

Now the protein sum. If your meal tests at 25 per cent crude protein, those 0.8 kilograms give about 0.2 kilograms of protein a day to the house. That helps, but it is not the whole fix. Not all of that protein is well used, because the fibre and the amino acid balance both get in the way. Most of the work still falls on the soya or fishmeal you already buy, and on the methionine the leaf cannot supply.

This is the sum that catches farmers out. They see a high protein figure on a sack and cut the soya by the same weight. The flock drops in lay, the shells thin, and the saving disappears. Do the sum before you touch the formula, and get your least-cost formula checked if you are not sure.

Yolk colour: what to expect and what not to promise

Layers on a leaf-containing mash often produce deeper yolks. Customers notice, and some sellers will try to charge more for it. That is a fair thing to market if the yolks really are deeper and the colour has been measured. It is not fair to promise if the yolks are a little brighter for a fortnight and then fade.

Yolk colour depends on everything the bird eats across the ration: the maize, the other greens, the breed, the season and the health of the flock. Leaf meal adds to that picture, but it will not replace a proper pigment source in a strict colour programme. If you sell by colour, measure the yolks each week with a colour fan, write the result down, and do not change the mash and the marketing on the same day.

The mistakes we see with cassava leaves on farms

• Feeding fresh leaves from the garden because they are free and green.
• Drying during the wet season, when the leaves go mouldy before they are dry.
• Replacing the soya entirely because the sack says 25 per cent protein.
• Using the meal in chick starter to save money. This is the most dangerous mistake on the list.
• Skipping the cyanide test because the seller is a neighbour. Neighbours are kind, not laboratories.

Most of these are cheap to avoid. The worst of them cost you the flock.

Storing the meal so it stays green and safe

Dried leaf meal goes stale. The green fades within weeks in bright light, the fats in the leaf oxidise, and the carotenoids, which are the pigment you bought it for, break down faster in warm, humid rooms. Store it sealed in a clean, dry bin raised off the floor and away from the wall, out of direct sun. Write the date it was made on the bag, and use the oldest batch first.

In the harmattan the air is dry and dusty, and the meal stays in good shape. In the rains, the same bag can pick up damp within a week if the lid is left loose. Check the meal every few days in the rainy season. Smell it, feel it, and throw out anything clumped.

A checklist before the first bag goes in

1. The flock is past the starter stage and on a tested, complete base feed.
2. The seller has told you how the leaves were boiled and dried.
3. You have seen a cyanide result, or you are buying from a processor who tests every batch.
4. The meal is green-brown, dry, crisp and smells of hay.
5. Your starting share is at or below the table figure for your stage.
6. You are weighing a sample of birds or counting eggs every week for the first month.
7. Your nutritionist has checked the methionine and total protein in the final mash.

Where the chicks come into the picture

We are a chick hatchery, so we are not a feed supplier and we do not sell cassava leaf meal. What we can help with is the flock the feed goes into. A layer strain such as our layer day-old chicks is bred to turn a good mash into eggs, and it is the sensible choice if you plan a leaf-based layer ration. Our broiler chicks suit a grower and finisher programme where you watch protein closely.

Chicks go out the day they hatch in boxes of 50, and we deliver to all 16 regions. Confirm the delivery cost before you pay, and read our delivery information for the details. Check the current starting prices, see the story of the hatchery, or place an order. For questions, WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503.

If you are comparing protein sources for the same ration, our piece on protein sources sets the options side by side.

Questions farmers ask