Two experiments were conducted to evaluate whole wheat feeding in broiler chicken production. Initial body weight (Exp1) and fortification of dietary additives (Exp 2) were assessed as treatment variables and the same whole wheat feeding regimen (substitution of whole wheat in the control diet at a rate of 5, 15 and 30% for the periods 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40 days-of-age, respectively) was used in both experiments. The first experiment was a 2*3 factorial design in which 5 replicate groups of 65 birds were fed a control diet or a whole wheat substituted diet and each diet included groups of chicks of loww eight (40-44 g / bird), high weight (46-50 g / bird) or random weight. The second experiment was a completely randomized design in which 5 replicate groups of 65 birds were fed a control diet, a whole wheat substituted diet or a fortified whole wheat substituted diet. Whole wheat feeding affected chick body weight gain adversely in Exp 1 (1660 vs. 1945 g / bird) but not in Exp 2 (2405 vs. 2453 g / bird). Breast fillet, gizzard and abdominal fat pad weights as a percentage of body weight were adversely influenced by whole wheat feeding in both experiments. In Exp 1 feed intake and body weight were related to initial chick weight but initial chick weight did not affect chick uniformity (within 10% of the mean body weight) at 20 or 40 days-of-age. There was no interaction between diet type and chick weight groups. Overall feed intake was greater for birds in Exp 2 as compared to Exp 1 (101 vs. 88 g / bird) indicating that the beneficial effects of whole wheat feeding may be influenced by voluntary feed intake.

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