Nutrition for Egg Size, Egg Shell Quality & Flock Profitability

How do we achieve a balance between Egg Size, Egg Shell Quality and Total Flock Profitability?

There has been an increasing trend over the past few months in feeding an Early Layers diet for a prolonged period, or even over the full length of the laying flock to stimulate the production of more, larger eggs.

This course of action may yield higher returns in the short term, but is it the most profitable way to work long term?

Nutrition

The requirements of a bird change as it gets older: –

1. Immediately after housing at 16 or 17 weeks of age, the bird is growing rapidly, and its skeleton is still being fully formed. That skeleton is vital for continued and sustained performance of the bird and its productive capacity will depend on it for the rest of its life. Many Producers use a Prelay feed at this stage for about 2 weeks – this feed is a bridge between the low Calcium Rearer and Grower diets and the more Calcium dense Layers feeds.
2. From about 18 weeks of age the birds move on to an Early Layer feed designed to be fed from the bird’s first egg to its peak laying period.  Realistically this should last until about 25 to 28 weeks of age but will vary from flock to flock and breed of bird. Early Layer feed is the most expensive of all Layer feeds because it is packed with everything a bird needs to achieve peak production. High Energy, high Amino acid levels, high Fatty Acid levels and strong Phosphorus content are all required to get the bird up to peak production quickly and to settle it into sustaining that peak level.
3. As birds get older, they eat more and produce fewer eggs. It does not need to grow any more after peak production, and therefore any excess Energy or other Nutrients will merely go to laying down Fat on the birds or be excreted as waste. At this point it makes sense to reduce the Nutrient content of the feed, to meet the birds reduced requirements without having any effect on egg production as egg profile is established at this stage

What can over-feeding of Early Layers cause?

Excess protein normally causes an increase in water intake which will result in higher moisture content in the bird’s droppings. That excess protein may also have to be discharged by the bird and lead to a high Nitrogen manure which may not be desirable from an environmental point of view. This excess protein excretion is also very energy demanding for the bird.

Over feeding causes birds (and the rest of us as well!) to put on weight. As we get bigger our appetite increases. As birds get bigger, they eat more and lay less.

In addition to the extra cost involved, feeding an Early Layers feed for a prolonged period after the bird has achieved its peak may be harmful to the bird’s development, harmful in maintaining shell quality and may shorten its laying lifespan.

As the hen gets older, the bird is less able to utilise Calcium, shell quality normally deteriorates, and egg size naturally increases. If this is accelerated by over feeding Early Lay with its imbalance of nutrients for later lay, egg shell quality will inevitably suffer further.

That may mean that the flock will be asked to deplete 4 or 5 weeks earlier than would be normal due to the much higher proportion of Class B or lower standard eggs. The consequence of premature depletion is that a Producer would be without flock income for 4 or 5 weeks longer than planned.

Profitable Feeding

Generally speaking, an Early Lay feed is about €10 – €12 per tonne more expensive than a Layer 1 diet.

That means for a 10,000-bird house, where each bird eats 130 gms / day, an excess cost of about €90 to €120 per week.

If the Early Lay feed is fed for 50 weeks (from week 26 to week 76) that becomes an excess cost of around €4500 to €6000 over the flock or about €0.45 to €0.60 cents per bird.

Recently we have seen the emergence of a SUPER Early Lay diet with even higher Energy and Amino Acid levels at around €15 to €20 increase per tonne.

That amounts to an excess cost of around €140 to €180 per week or

€7000 to €9000 over the flock or €0.70 to €0.90 cents per bird.

Most compounders in Ireland also offer a Layers 2 and occasionally a Layers 3 feed to cater for the bird’s lower nutrient need as they get older.

The difference in price between these and Early Lay feed can be as high as €25 to €30 per tonne.

Poultry Feed Prices going forward

Over the past 12 months feed prices have risen by €40 to €50 per tonne, and they have much further to rise.

On the basis of current forward raw material prices for first half 2022, we could be looking at feed price rises of €25 to €30 per tonne for Jan – Apr 2022, and a further €5 to €10 for May – July 2022. That alone would represent 6 to 8 cents per dozen eggs.

The World has much less Maize, Wheat, Soya-Meal and Soya-Oil due to bad harvests and massive Chinese stockpiling amongst other reasons.

We have had 7 or 8 years of lower, stable feed prices.

That is now over – we are moving into a higher priced period of several years. Feed prices are still rising and will continue for some time to come.

Why then over-use and waste expensive raw materials?

At present in Ireland and Great Britain, we are in a situation of heavy over-supply of eggs. That situation is not expected to improve in the short term.

It is imperative therefore that Producers maximise not only egg size, but also shell quality throughout the entire flock cycle to fully benefit their overall flock profitability.

B.J. Mulholland 
Animal Feed Adviser