What feed conversion ratio really measures, how to work it out on your farm, and the habits that bring it down.
Feed is usually the largest cost in a broiler batch, often well over half of everything you spend. Feed conversion ratio, or FCR, is the simplest way to judge whether that money is being turned into meat or lost along the way.
What FCR means
FCR is the kilograms of feed eaten divided by the kilograms of live bird produced. If 4,800 birds average 1.9 kg, you have 9,120 kg of live weight. If they ate 14,000 kg of feed, your FCR is 14,000 divided by 9,120, which is about 1.54. Every kilogram of bird cost you 1.54 kg of feed.
Lower is better. As a rough guide, below 1.5 is very good, between 1.5 and 1.8 is fair, and above 1.8 means something needs attention.
How to calculate it honestly
Count all feed delivered to the shed minus feed left in the store at the end. Count all live weight, including birds sold earlier in thinning, birds still in the shed, and ideally the weight of birds that died, which is usually left out but explains why mortality hurts FCR. If you leave out thinned birds, your FCR will look much worse than it is.
What pushes FCR up
- Feed wastage from low-hung or leaking feeders
- Wet or mouldy feed and long storage in summer heat
- Cold stress in winter, when birds burn feed to stay warm
- Disease, even mild, that slows growth while birds keep eating
- Rats and wild birds sharing the feed
- Selling later than needed, because older birds convert worse every day
Habits that bring it down
Weigh a sample of birds every week, not only at the end. If weights are behind target on day 14, you can still fix brooding or water problems. Check feeder height so the lip sits at the birds' back level, and fill little and often so feed stays fresh.
Keep water clean and cool. Birds drink about twice what they eat by weight, and poor water shows up in FCR before it shows up anywhere else. Record feed per shed per day, so one bad house does not hide inside a farm average.
Using FCR to decide
Compare batches on the same age and weight. A 1.55 at 1.7 kg is not the same as a 1.55 at 2.2 kg, because FCR gets worse with age. Together with mortality and age, FCR feeds into EPEF, which gives one score for the whole batch.
Try the free FCR calculator to check your last batch, then see which of the habits above you can improve on the next one.