The Age of Cage Free

Cuxhaven, 09.04.2025 – 35 attendees from 12 countries broke free from their daily tasks to immerse themselves into three intensive blocks of cage-free topics. Cage-Free can’t be easy nor simple, however a continuous exchange of knowledge and learn latest updates is key for a successful egg production in this kind of systems.

Forecasting the future of layers while considering influencing factors like global developments, market requirements, availability of resources and complexity of value creation chains made the start into the event – lead by our Chief Geneticist Dr. David Cavero. Lighting management keeps being one powerful lever to communicate with the birds – how and why that’s done was presented by Dr. Fernando Carrasquer. He also led through sessions of detection and prevention of Cage-Free diseases and general Hygiene Management. Dr. Emilio Scappaticcio, in support of the global nutrition team showed the various aspects of the nutrition in rearing and production and Leon Schouren cage free specialist shared different management tips for the farms.

James Wignall of H&N Great Britain shared his experiences of floor egg prevention. Most importantly he elaborated on how and why farm staff is advised to interact with the birds and time any such human interaction in a solid recurring manner to not disturb the birds, their laying or feeding cycles. According to him, much is to be won with due diligence of initial observation of necessary versus unnecessary steps, followed by orchestrated action and clearly separated measures, and result control.

Learning should be a dynamic and interactive activity; thus, H&N team prepared several workshops and quizzes to enhance the learning experience. During the three days there was time for dynamic learning sessions where the participants shared their local views about challenges, they face in cage free. Trouble shooting is a daily activity, and several cases of management, health and nutrition were presented for challenging the knowledge of the “students”.

H&N International thanks all participants and presenters – we hope to see you soon again!