Short answer: Palm kernel cake carries about 15 per cent protein, but its fibre is high and its energy is roughly half that of maize, so it can only take a small share of most rations. Keep it to about 5 to 10 per cent of layer and pullet mixes, leave it out of chick and broiler starter feed, and buy cake that is dry, fresh and tested for aflatoxin.
Key takeaways
- Palm kernel cake has about 15 per cent protein, but its energy is roughly half that of maize.
- The fibre and mannans make it bulky and can turn droppings sticky and litter wet.
- Layers and pullets can take a small share; chicks and broiler starters should not get it.
- Every 10 kg in 100 kg of mash costs about 170 kcal of energy, so add oil or maize to make it up.
- Expeller cake keeps more oil and goes rancid faster than solvent-extracted cake.
- Test a new sack on a small group for 14 days before it goes into the whole shed.
The cake that looks like protein on the sack
Palm kernel cake is about 15 per cent protein, and that single number is why farmers buy it. Set it beside soya and it looks like a bargain for a fraction of the price. Inside a bird the picture is more complicated.
When a flock turns sloppy after a feed change, palm kernel cake is one of the first ingredients we ask about. The farmer usually says the new mix looked fine and the price was right. Both things can be true. The cake is cheap protein, but it arrives with a lot of fibre and very little energy, and most of the problems come from that pairing.
Our protein sources guide lists the options side by side. This article is about one of them, what it does in the gut, and how to use it without losing eggs or weight.
Where the cake comes from, and the two kinds you will meet
Palm kernel cake is what is left after the kernels of the oil palm are crushed for their oil. The palm belt of Ghana, through the Western, Central, Eastern and Ashanti regions, supplies much of it, from larger crushing plants and from smaller mills that press kernels in batches. The process decides the nutrition more than the location does.
An expeller mill presses the kernels mechanically, so the cake keeps a good share of its oil. A solvent plant washes the oil out with a solvent, so the cake is almost fat-free. The two look alike in a sack, but they behave differently in storage and in the bird.
| Feature (approximate) | Expeller cake | Solvent-extracted cake |
|---|---|---|
| Oil left in the cake | About 7 to 10 per cent | About 1 to 3 per cent |
| Crude protein | About 14 to 16 per cent | About 15 to 17 per cent |
| Crude fibre | About 15 to 20 per cent | About 15 to 20 per cent |
| Energy for poultry | Higher, because the oil adds energy | Lower, because the oil is gone |
| Storage life | Shorter, since the oil can turn rancid | Longer, but still needs dry storage |
| Best use | Small layer and pullet shares | Slightly larger shares where energy is topped up |
Ask which process made the cake before you buy. A seller who does not know is not the one to buy the next sack from.
The energy problem in numbers
Palm kernel cake supplies roughly 1,500 to 1,800 kcal of metabolisable energy per kilogram for poultry, depending on its oil and fibre. Maize gives about 3,300. The cake carries protein, but it cannot carry much energy along with it.
Here is the sum for a layer mash. Put 10 kg of palm kernel cake into 100 kg of mash in place of 10 kg of maize, and two things happen at once. The protein goes up. The 10 kg of cake gives about 1.5 kg of protein against about 0.85 kg from the maize, so the mash gains 0.65 points of crude protein. The energy goes down. At 1,700 kcal per kg against 3,300, the 10 kg swap takes about 16,000 kcal out of the 100 kg batch, which is roughly 170 kcal less in every kilogram of mash.
A layer mash aimed at about 2,750 kcal per kg of ME is therefore pulled toward 2,580. That is about 6 per cent less energy in every mouthful. A hen eats to meet her energy need, so she either eats more or lays less. Either way, the protein you bought has cost you energy you now have to buy back.
Restoring the energy you lose
The cheapest energy to add back is usually palm oil. Two kilograms of oil in 100 kg of mash adds roughly 160 kcal per kilogram, because palm oil supplies about 8,000 kcal per kilogram. That almost cancels the drop from the example above. Oil is a dense fuel, so it does not add bulk, and a little goes a long way.
Oil has its own weak point. It oxidises in heat and light, and it smells off when it has been sitting in the store. Buy it fresh, keep it sealed and cool, and mix it in the same week you use it. Rancid oil is a problem that gets worse the longer it stays on the shelf.
The other way to restore energy is more maize. That works, but it also lowers the protein you just gained, so it cannot be done without recalculating the whole mix. For a formula change, our feed formulation basics article shows the order of the calculations.
Fibre and mannans: why the droppings go wet
The fibre in palm kernel cake is not the simple kind that passes straight through. A large part of it is mannan, a sugar polymer that the bird cannot break down by itself. In the gut, mannans hold water and make the digesta thick and sticky. The bird passes more moisture in its droppings, and the litter around the drinkers goes damp and caked.
That is the sign to look for. Droppings that sit on the litter like wet paste instead of crumbling, a wet ring around the drinkers, and a faint ammonia smell in the house after the feed change all point the same way. Young birds show it fastest, because their guts are smaller and less able to handle bulk.
Some farms add a mannanase enzyme to fibrous mixes, and that can reduce the stickiness. Our enzymes article explains what they do and what they cost. An enzyme does not make palm kernel cake a high-energy feed, though, so keep the share modest whether or not you use one.
Mould, rancid oil and the smell test
Palm kernel cake takes up moisture from the air, which makes it a good home for mould in the rains. Moulds of the Aspergillus group can make aflatoxin, and the risk is real for any cake that has been stored damp. Expeller cake adds a second problem: its oil oxidises, and the cake turns rancid.
The smell test is quick and it works. A sound cake smells mildly nutty, sometimes a little sweet. Musty, sour or heated smells mean mould or fermentation. A smell like old paint, crayons or stale cooking oil means the fat has gone off. Look for clumps that stay together when you press them, white or green fluff, and dark patches. Any of these means reject.
A smell test does not catch aflatoxin, because you cannot see or smell it reliably. Ask for a test result on any batch that goes into a layer or pullet mix. Our feed storage and aflatoxin guide explains what the results mean and how to store the cake so it stays clean.
How much to use, by stage
These are the highest shares we would put into a mix with palm kernel cake in it. They assume a dry, fresh, tested cake and an energy level you have checked after the swap. They are ceilings, not targets, and most farms should sit below them.
| Stage | Max palm kernel cake (% of mix) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chick starter, 0 to 6 weeks | 0 | Chick guts cannot cope with the bulk. Leave it out. |
| Broiler starter | 0 | Fibre slows early growth and lowers feed conversion. |
| Broiler grower and finisher | 0 to 3 | Only where energy is topped up. Most broiler farms do better without it. |
| Pullet grower, 7 to 18 weeks | Up to 8 | Bulk can help pullets eat less during rearing. Weigh them every week. |
| Layer, point of lay to peak | 5 to 10 | Add palm oil or check energy so the hens keep their intake. |
| Layer, late lay | Up to 15 | Hens at this age need less energy, so the share can go a little higher. |
| Breeder flock | 0 to 5 | Hatchability depends on a clean, complete ration. |
Pullets are the one place where the fibre has a real job. Used with care, bulk helps a bird learn to stop eating when it is full, which matters before point of lay. Used carelessly, it leaves pullets short on energy and late into lay.
Why chicks and broilers should not get it
A chick is built to pack energy and protein into a small gut in a short time. Palm kernel cake asks that small gut to process bulk, and the chick cannot keep up. Its feed passes through faster, it digests less, and it falls behind its batch. The loss shows in the weigh-in, and it does not come back fully later.
Broilers have a different problem. They are bred to grow fast on a dense ration. Every gram of fibre in the mash slows the feed passage and lowers the amount of usable energy per gram eaten. The bird eats more to reach its target weight and turns the extra feed into less meat. That shows up as a worse feed conversion ratio, and our feed conversion article explains why that number is the one that decides profit.
If a broiler feed salesman offers you a cheap finisher full of cake, ask him for the energy figure. The answer usually settles the question. Our broiler chicks are sold for meat birds that do best on a standard starter, grower and finisher programme.
Need chicks for your next batch?
Send breed, number and town. We reply with price, hatch date and delivery cost in writing.
A trial on a small group before you switch
Do not change a whole shed on the strength of a price. Pick a pen of 20 to 30 birds that look like the rest of the flock, keep them on the current mash, and put the new mix in a second pen of the same size. Run both for 14 days. Two weeks is long enough to see the droppings settle, the egg size shift and the litter change.
Record the feed given and left in each pen every day. Count and weigh the eggs from both pens on two days each week. Watch the litter and the drinkers. If the test pen loses weight, lays smaller eggs or produces sticky droppings, stop the trial and go back to the old mash. A bad fortnight costs far less than a bad month across the whole flock.
Our layer feeding guide lists the egg and body-weight checks that work best for a trial like this.
Buying from the mill: what to ask for
Buying straight from a crusher is often fresher than buying from a market store, because the cake is still close to the press. The trade-off is that a mill may not hold a lab analysis for every batch. Ask anyway. A supplier who is serious about the product will send a sheet, and one who is not will tell you that the cake is just cake.
Ask for the crude protein, crude fibre, fat and moisture, the process used, the production date, and the aflatoxin result if one exists. Check the sack for husk, sand and grit, which are the usual adulterants in cheap cake. Compare the cost on energy and protein, not on the sack, because a cake that is cheap per kilogram can still be dear per unit of useful energy.
Buy for the next four to six weeks, not for the rainy season ahead. Palm kernel cake is at its best when it is fresh, and a large store in the damp months is a store that goes off.
A checklist before the sack goes into the mash
Run through this list each time you open a new sack. It takes five minutes, and it is the cheapest insurance on the farm.
- Check the analysis for protein, fibre, fat, moisture and aflatoxin, and write the date on the sack.
- Smell the cake. Mild nutty is fine. Musty, sour, paint-like or heated means reject.
- Squeeze a handful. It should fall apart into a loose crumb, not hold a clump.
- Check for husk, sand and grit, and sieve a small sample if you are unsure.
- Recalculate the energy and protein of the mix with the new share in it.
- Add palm oil or maize where the energy has dropped, and recheck the total.
- Run the new mix on a test pen for 14 days before it goes to the shed.
- Keep the sack dry and off the floor, and use the oldest stock first.
Mistakes that cost eggs
Most losses with this cake come from a small number of habits, and they repeat from farm to farm.
- Swapping maize for cake and changing nothing else. The energy falls, and the hens eat more and lay less.
- Buying a big stock for the rains. A damp store of cake can turn mouldy in weeks.
- Judging by the protein figure alone. The fibre and the energy decide how much the hen can use.
- Ignoring the litter. Wet litter around the drinkers is an early warning, not a nuisance.
- Feeding it to chicks to save money. The saving is lost in the first weigh-in.
If you want to talk through a mix before you change it, WhatsApp us on +233 24 915 1503 or visit the FAQ for the common questions. Ordering the birds first and then planning the feed is the simplest route, and you can do it through the order form.
Questions farmers ask
Can palm kernel cake replace soya in layer feed?
Only partly. Soya has around twice the protein and far more lysine, so the two cannot be swapped one for one. A small share of palm kernel cake can take some of the protein load, but the lysine and methionine still have to come from soya or fishmeal, and the energy lost in the swap has to be replaced with oil or maize.
Why are my hens' droppings wet after I added palm kernel cake?
The mannans and fibre hold water in the gut, so the bird passes wetter droppings and the litter round the drinkers gets damp. Lower the share, check the drinkers for leaks, and look at the litter. If the wetness continues for a week at the lower share, go back to the old mash and call your vet if the birds look unwell.
Is palm kernel cake safe for pullets?
Yes, in small amounts during rearing. A share up to about 8 per cent in the grower feed is a common limit, and the bulk can help pullets eat less while they grow. Weigh a sample every week, and stop the cake if the birds fall behind the breed's target weight.
How can I tell if palm kernel cake has gone bad?
A rancid cake smells like old paint, crayons or stale oil. A mouldy one smells musty or sour and may show white or green fluff or dark patches. Clumps that will not break apart when pressed point to damp. Any of these means reject, and do not mix it into the feed to stretch a bag.
Should I grind palm kernel cake finer before mixing?
A finer grind helps the mixer distribute it evenly and gives the bird a little more surface to work on, but grinding does not remove any fibre. Grind when the cake is dry, not after it has taken on moisture, and check the particle size on the analysis sheet if the supplier gives one.
Is palm kernel cake cheaper than maize per unit of energy?
Usually not. Its energy is about half that of maize, so the cheaper sack per kilogram can cost more per unit of energy once you add oil or extra maize to make up the difference. Do the sum per kilocalorie and per gram of protein before you decide.
Can I use palm kernel cake in broiler feed?
We advise against it in starter feed. A small share in a finisher might suit some farms that watch their energy closely, but the fibre slows growth and worsens feed conversion. Most broiler farms do better on a standard finisher, and the feed conversion figure will tell you quickly if the mix is working.
