Feed manufacturing is an integral component of the poultry industry. A study was conducted to evaluate the impact of feed ingredients, conditioning temperature, and AZOMITE (AZ) level on production rate and pellet quality measured by pellet durability index (PDI). A 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 factorial arrangement within the randomized complete block design was used, for a total of 24 treatments. A broiler grower diet was tested under two conditioning temperatures (82.2°C and 87.8°C), two distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) levels (0 and 8%), two meat and bone meal (MBM) levels (0 and 4%), and three levels of AZ (0, 0.25, 0.50%). Conditioning temperature, DDGS, MBM, and AZ levels all influenced production rate. Interactions between the different factors were assessed and interpreted. These interactions indicate that the inclusion of AZ increases production rate in diets containing DDGS. Both DDGS and MBM decreased production rate compared with relative controls, whereas AZ at 0.25% and 0.50% increased the production rate. Increasing conditioning temperature from 82.2°C to 87.8°C improved production rate and had a positive influence on PDI. The level of MBM and AZ did not impact PDI; however, the inclusion of DDGS had a negative impact on PDI. Although AZ did not increase throughput and PDI simultaneously, its ability to improve pellet production while maintaining PDI indicates usefulness in feed manufacturing. These results indicated that temperature and AZ can be used to offset some of the negative effects of DDGS on pelleting production rate.

饲料制造业是家禽业不可或缺的组成部分。进行了一项研究，以评估饲料成分，调节温度和AZOMITE（AZ）水平对生产速率和通过颗粒耐久性指数（PDI）测得的颗粒质量的影响。在随机完整区组设计中使用2×2×2×3阶乘安排，共进行24种治疗。在两个调节温度（82.2°C和87.8°C），两个酒糟的干物质（DDGS）水平（0和8％），两个肉和骨粉（MBM）下测试了肉鸡日粮）级别（0和4％）和三个级别的AZ（0、0.25、0.50％）。调节温度，DDGS，MBM和AZ水平都会影响生产率。评估和解释了不同因素之间的相互作用。这些相互作用表明，包含DDGS的日粮中添加AZ可以提高生产率。与相对对照相比，DDGS和MBM均降低了生产率，而0.25％和0.50％的AZ则提高了生产率。将调节温度从82.2°C提高到87.8°C可以提高生产率，并对PDI产生积极影响。MBM和AZ的水平不影响PDI。但是，DDGS的加入对PDI有负面影响。尽管AZ不能同时增加产量和PDI，但它在保持PDI的同时提高颗粒产量的能力表明了其在饲料生产中的有用性。