Sasso and Coloured Broiler Farming in Ghana

At the Kasoa live-bird market on a Friday before a funeral weekend, watch which birds sell first. It is rarely the white broilers. Buyers lift the red and speckled birds, feel the breast, look at the yellow legs, and pay ten or fifteen cedis more per bird than for a white broiler of the same weight. They are buying a bird that looks like the fowl their mothers cooked, with firmer meat that holds up in a long-simmered soup or on a grill. That market has existed in Ghana for as long as there have been fowls, and for the past decade there has been a bird bred specifically to fill it.

Sasso is a family of coloured, slow-growing meat strains from the French breeding company of the same name, now part of a larger group. It is sold in Ghana as red, black, grey or speckled day-old chicks, and it has become the most common commercial "coloured broiler" here, alongside Hubbard coloured lines and dual-purpose crosses such as Noiler and Kuroiler. It takes roughly twice as long as a Cobb 500 to reach 2 kg, eats more feed for each kilogram it puts on, and yet a growing number of our customers make more money per bird from it than from white broilers.

This guide is for the farmer weighing that trade. It explains what Sasso and similar coloured broilers are, how they grow, what to feed them and how, the housing systems that suit them, where the market is and what it pays, the health issues we see, and a worked comparison against a white broiler batch so you can judge the economics for your own farm.

What a coloured broiler is, and what it is not

A coloured broiler is a meat chicken selected for moderate growth (typically 2 to 2.5 kg at 8 to 12 weeks rather than 5 to 6), coloured plumage, yellow skin and legs, firmer meat texture and better survival under less controlled conditions. The Sasso range includes several lines coded by number, crossed at the parent level to give commercial chicks that differ in colour and growth speed; the ones we see most in Ghana are red-feathered and reach 2.2 to 2.5 kg at 10 to 11 weeks. Hubbard has equivalent coloured lines. All of them are hybrids, and like white broilers they cannot usefully be bred onward by the farmer.

What a Sasso is not is a local fowl. It grows three to four times faster than a village chicken, needs proper feed to do so, and will not thrive if simply released to scavenge. It is also not a Noiler or a Kuroiler, which are dual-purpose crosses bred to lay a reasonable number of eggs as well as give meat. The Sasso hen lays poorly and is not worth keeping for eggs. We compare the dual-purpose options in the Noiler and Kuroiler guide, and the broader question of which type suits which farmer in the chicken breeds guide.

Growth: what to expect week by week

Sasso chicks hatch at 36 to 40 g, a little lighter than white broiler chicks, and they are noticeably more active and alert. The first two weeks look similar to a white broiler brood, but from week three the curves diverge. The table gives the growth we see in Ghana on a semi-intensive system with commercial or well-mixed feed, and the feed consumed.

Orientation figures from our customer records on semi-intensive systems. Fully housed birds on pelleted feed grow slightly faster; scavenging birds with a small supplement grow much slower. Weigh a sample every two weeks.

Note the FCR. A Sasso at 10 weeks has eaten roughly 5.2 kg to reach 2.2 kg, an FCR around 2.4, against 1.8 to 1.9 for a Cobb 500 at the same weight. Feed per bird is roughly 15 to 20 percent higher, and the bird occupies the house for four extra weeks. Those are the costs. The bird sells for 15 to 30 percent more, it dies less, and it can be raised in a cheaper house on partly scavenged feed. Those are the returns. Whether the sum is positive depends on your market, and we work through it below.

Brooding and the first four weeks

Brood Sasso exactly as you would a white broiler for the first three weeks: 33 to 34 °C under the heat source on day one, dropping about 2.5 °C a week, dry litter, water within a metre, starter crumb on trays. The difference is that Sasso feather much faster and can usually come off heat by day 18 to 21 in the coastal belt, a week earlier than a Cobb. In harmattan or the cool inland nights keep the heat until day 24. Full detail is in the brooding guide.

A point that surprises farmers switching from white broilers: Sasso chicks fly. By week three they will perch on the brooder guard and by week four on the drinker. Use a taller guard (60 cm) and expect some chicks outside the ring in the morning; a chick that spent the night outside the ring in harmattan will be chilled. Cover the top of the brooder ring with mesh if the house has open eaves.

Stock the brooder at the same density as white broilers, expanding to 12 to 15 birds per square metre by week four. Vaccinate against Newcastle and Gumboro on the same schedule as white broilers, and because the bird lives to 10 or 12 weeks, add a second Newcastle booster around week 6 to 7 and fowl pox around week 6 if pox is present in your district. Confirm the programme with a vet; our vaccination schedule gives a starting point. Coccidiosis is the disease most likely to spoil a Sasso batch in weeks three to six, particularly once birds go out on damp ground, so use a coccidiostat in the feed or watch the droppings daily.

Feeding coloured broilers: the phase programme

Sasso do not need, and will not efficiently use, the very high-density diets designed for white broilers. A starter of 20 to 21 percent protein to week four, a grower of 17 to 18 percent to week eight, and a finisher of 15 to 16 percent from week eight to sale is the practical programme. Energy of 2,800 to 2,950 kcal per kg is sufficient. Feeding a Sasso a 23 percent broiler starter for four weeks does not make it grow like a Cobb; it makes it a more expensive Sasso.

Where the bird earns its keep is in its tolerance of cheaper ingredients. Sasso do well on diets with a higher proportion of maize bran, wheat bran, palm kernel cake, brewer's spent grain and cassava, because their slower growth means the lower amino acid density is not limiting in the way it would be for a Ross 308. A farmer near Kumasi who mixes maize, wheat bran, palm kernel cake, soya and fish meal with a premix and gets 2.2 kg at 10 weeks is doing well. The local feed ingredients guide and the feed mixing guide cover formulations. Be careful with aflatoxin in stored maize and groundnut cake; a slow-growing bird is exposed for longer.

On a semi-intensive system, where the birds range on grass or under trees during the day from week four, supplement at roughly 60 to 70 percent of the housed ration and let them find the rest. Ranging Sasso eat insects, termites, fallen fruit and green leaf, which improves skin and leg colour and, according to our customers' buyers, the flavour. Water must still be available in the range area. In the rainy season, keep them in during heavy rain; a wet Sasso on muddy ground is a coccidiosis outbreak in waiting.

Housing: from simple to very simple

Because they grow slowly and feather well, coloured broilers do not need the ventilation precision of a white broiler house. The three systems we see working in Ghana:

• Fully housed deep litter. Same house as for white broilers, at 8 to 10 birds per square metre to sale. Fastest growth and easiest management, but no feed saving from ranging and the birds' activity makes the litter work harder. Add perches from week four; the birds use them and it reduces breast blisters.
• Semi-intensive (house plus run). A simple house of 8 to 10 birds per square metre with a fenced run of at least 2 to 4 square metres per bird, opened from week four in dry weather. This is the system most of our Sasso customers use. Fence to 1.8 m and cover if hawks are a problem, and lock the birds in at night without exception. The predator guide shows what works against hawks, mongooses and thieves.
• Free-range. Birds ranging freely around a farm or compound with a night shelter. Slowest growth (12 to 14 weeks to 2 kg), highest losses to predators and theft, lowest feed cost. Works for a small flock where the birds have a large area and someone is around. Our free-range guide discusses the premium market for these birds.

The market: who buys coloured broilers and what they pay

This is where the Sasso decision is made. The bird sells to the live-bird trade and to households and chop bars that prefer a "hard" fowl. Its buyers are people cooking for funerals, weddings, Christmas, Easter and Eid; women trading at Kasoa, Kaneshie, Kejetia and Techiman; and increasingly restaurants in Accra and Kumasi that market "local" or "hard" chicken at a premium. It does not sell well to processors and supermarkets that want a broad-breasted, uniform white carcass; the Sasso breast is narrower and the leg proportion larger.

Prices fluctuate, but in southern Ghana in mid-2026 a live Sasso of 2 to 2.3 kg was fetching roughly GH₵ 85 to 110 at the farm gate and more at retail, against GH₵ 70 to 85 for a white broiler of the same weight. The premium widens before festivals and in the weeks around Christmas when white broilers flood the market, and narrows in the middle of the year. Sell the cockerels first; at 10 weeks the males are 300 to 400 g heavier than the females and command the best price. Timing batches to finish two weeks before a festival is the single biggest lever on margin; our Christmas market guide and selling guide cover the calendar and the buyers.

Sasso versus white broiler: a worked comparison

The following compares a 500-bird batch of Sasso sold at 10 weeks with a 500-bird batch of Cobb 500 sold at 6 weeks, both housed and fed commercial mash, using mid-2026 orientation prices. Confirm every number live; the point is the shape of the comparison, not the exact figures. See the Cobb 500 guide for the white broiler side in detail.

Orientation only. Feed and chick prices move with the cedi and the maize harvest; live prices swing with festivals. The Sasso figures assume a live-bird buyer paying the coloured-bird premium; without that premium the comparison reverses.

Read the last two rows together. Per batch, the Sasso margin is higher. Per year in the same house, the white broiler runs six or seven batches to the Sasso's four, and the annual totals come out closer than the batch figures suggest. The Sasso wins clearly when the farmer has a reliable premium market, can use a cheaper house or a run, and can substitute part of the ration with local ingredients or ranging. The white broiler wins when the market is processors and cold stores, house space is the limiting factor and the farmer can manage heat. Many of our customers run both: white broilers for the cold store and Sasso for the festival trade. The broiler profitability article and the breakeven guide help you build your own version of this table.

Mini-case: the Techiman farmer who stopped losing birds in April

A customer near Techiman had run white broilers for four years and dreaded the March to May batches, when afternoon temperatures in his low zinc-roofed house reached 38 °C and he lost 8 to 12 percent of every batch to heat. In 2024 he switched the hot-season batches to red Sasso from our hatchery, 600 birds in the same house with a fenced run under cashew trees opened from week four. Mortality in the hot season fell to under 3 percent, the birds spent the hottest hours under the trees rather than panting in the house, and he sold the batch at 10 weeks into the Eid market at a premium he had never seen with white birds. He still runs white broilers from June to December when the house is cooler, and Sasso from January to May. He told us the Sasso taught him that the house was the problem, not the birds, but that he was happy to have a bird that forgave the house.

Common problems and how to handle them

Coloured broilers bring fewer metabolic problems than white broilers; sudden death syndrome and ascites are rare because growth is slower. The problems we see instead are these. Coccidiosis in weeks three to six, especially in birds on damp range: watch for bloody or brown mucoid droppings and hunched birds, and treat promptly on veterinary advice; see the coccidiosis guide. Worms in ranging birds from week six, because the range is where they pick them up: deworm at 8 weeks and again at 12 if the birds are kept longer, using a product and dose confirmed with a vet, and observe withdrawal before sale. Fowl pox in the rainy season where mosquitoes are dense: vaccinate at 6 weeks in affected areas. Predators and theft: the single biggest cause of loss in ranging Sasso is not disease but hawks in the day and thieves at night. Uneven growth between sexes: normal; sell the males first at 9 to 10 weeks and give the females another one to two weeks.

Frequently asked questions