Energy Consumption Analysis and Effect of Broiler Chicken Capacity on Energy Indices (A Case Study in Alborz Province)

With increasing population, demand for chicken meat has increased and resource constraints have led to increased production with an emphasis on improving the productivity of inputs and energy indices, so studying energy consumption in broiler production is important. One of the important issue in broiler industry is energy consumption. In this study, energy consumption flow and amount of energy production were investigated for broiler farms in Alborz province. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. Input energies were consisted of feed, fuel (gas and gas oil), electricity, labor, equipment and chicken. Output energy were the broiler and manure. The total of input and output energies were obtained 125.2, 24.9 GJ/1000Birds, respectively. The highest share of energy consumption belonged to fuel (gas and diesel) with 50.85% and feed with 42.44%, and the machine and labor with 0.16 and 0.07 % were the lowest share among the input energies.  Energy indices, including energy ratio and energy efficiency were obtained 0.199 and 0.019 kg/MJ, respectively. Comparison of energy in three levels of hatching: ˂15000, 15000≤ ˂30000 and ≥30000 chicks showed that total energy inputs were 139.35, 130.55, 105.71, GJ/1000Birds, respectively; the ratio of energy was 0.179, 0.191, 0.236 and energy productivity was 0.017, 0.019 and 0.02 kg.MJ-1, respectively. Econometric model evaluation showed that chicken energy was the most significant input which affects the output in 1% level. If chicken energy increases 1MJ/1000birds, broiler meat production will increase 2.68 kg. Sensitivity analysis results showed that the major Marginal physical productivity (MPP) was obtained for labor energy, followed by chicken energy. The MPP of machine, electricity, fuel and feed were negative indicating that these inputs applied more than the amount required or were not applied properly. Thus, development of broiler farm mechanization and increasing capacity of broiler units is recommended.