Animal Nutrition

Critical points in the nutrition of laying hens

To read more content about aviNews International June 2022

Contenido disponible en:
Español (Spanish)

Current laying hens have a high genetic potential to produce eggs. If they receive adequate environmental conditions, health, and nutrition, they can maintain over 90% of the laying rate for a long period of the productive cycle.

In the last decade, we have seen how genetic progress has generated laying hens with an extraordinary productive persistence, accompanied by a slight decrease in body weight, feed consumption, and egg size, reaching 50% production earlier than ten years ago.

 

Modern laying hens, a challenge for nutritionists

Modern laying hens represent a challenge for nutritionists, as one can no longer entirely rely on scientific information generated in the past with other types of birds.

  • One could think of an increase in nutritional requirements. However, they still produce one egg per day, with slightly reduced daily egg mass. Therefore daily nutritional requirements should not have increased; hence the importance of considering the nutritional requirements of the hen in the laying phase based on a daily intake of nutrients.

The importance of reaching the bodyweight during rearing

Therefore, it is necessary to prepare the layers to start the lay with a suitable size and bodyweight:

Continue after advertising.

To interrelate the above parameters, the rearing diets must stimulate the increase in the size of the digestive tract and increase the levels of fiber. It is also important to use feed with a granulometry of around 1.0 to 1.2 mm from the fifth week of age.

PDF

JOIN OUR POULTRY COMMUNITY

Access the PDF articles
Keep up to date with our newsletters
Receive the magazine for free in digital version

DISCOVER
AgriFM - The Livestock Sector Podcasts in English
agriCalendar - The events calendar of the agricultural worldagriCalendar
agrinewsCampus - Training courses for the livestock sector