Successful broiler production starts with creating optimal growth conditions from the moment of hatch. In recent years, early feeding was developed and was believed to be the “golden egg”. “By everything humans invent however, we must bear in mind that mother nature always has the final word”, says international poultry consultant Ron Meijerhof. “The entire day old chick management, demands more than just early feeding.”
Dr. Ron Meijerhof is well known in the international poultry business. As a consultant, he is serving and advising poultry integrations across the world, with:
As such, early feeding of day old chicks is also much his field of interest and knowledge.
“The best practice is a good theory. In other words, developing new systems should fully be based on in depth scientific research, logical thinking and as a result on a welldocumented theory”, says Ron.
- When feeding chicks already during hatching, they will on average start eating 24 hours earlier, compared to a traditional system.
- In theory they should then end up by around 80 grams heavier at slaughter weight, as they grow one day longer. This is not the case however.
The entire crop ends up at the similar slaughter weight compared to if they had not had received feed and water in an early stage. If there is a difference in slaughter weight, it is relatively small”
“But then which is the real advantage of early feeding?”, Ron continues. “Why should we make this effort and invest in quite a costly system? EU legislation defines that young animals must receive their first feed within a defined number of hours or period of time.
This depends on the type of animal. Chicks are excluded from this legislation however, as they possess a yolk sac which provides nutrition for the early days of their life.
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