MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION VARIABLES OF LAYER CHICKENS ON DEEP-LITTER IN THE HUMID TROPICS

Abstract

Chicken breeding is a technical enterprise that involves specific and timely strategies to manipulate latent Factors. It is also intensive and involves high managerial competence for high profitability. Data on Hen day production, egg weight, Age in production (Prodage), Season, Strain (genotype) and Batch on weekly basis were obtained from Layer chicken from a popular chicken farm in Ibadan. These data covered the production cycle of 2 Strains – Bovan Nera and Isa Brown – of chicken. Data covered 20 batches of each strain covering a period of 10 years. Data were analyzed using the Multivariate procedures of descriptive, ANOVA (P<0.05), Pearsons’ Correlation, Principal component Analysis (PCA) and Common Factor analysis (CFA). Findings from the study indicated better productive indices for Wet than Dry season. PCA extracted 3 components while the Varimax rotation with Keizer normalization produced 3 orthogonal Factors with high loadings for Prodage and egg weight under Age Factor, Batch and Season under Environmental Factors, and Hen day production and Strain under Genetic Factor. These results have implications and require management and breeding strategies to utilize them for technical efficiency in the environment.