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Nutrition

Rearing nutrition

Feed description and management

Starter feed

  • High density diet with highly digestible raw materials.
  • Investment that sets up the basis of skeletal and muscular growth of the pullet.
  • Feed should always be available.

Grower feed

  • Medium density diet with more variety of raw materials.
  • This supports skeletal and muscular growth.

Developer feed

  • Low density diet with raw materials high in fibre.
  • Feed with significant levels of fibre or a higher particle size to develop the feed intake for the start of lay.

Changing diets

  • Delay a change to the diet if the target body weight is not reached.
  • If the body weight isn’t achieved by 5 or 11 weeks of age, there is a need to review the nutrition, density and management in the previous weeks.
  • If the birds are over the target body weight, the change to the next diet can be done a week earlier.

Formulation tips

Starter

  • Crumble feed presentation will improve growth and make it easier to reach the standard body weight.
  • It could be interesting to invest in highly digestible raw materials if they are available.
  • Soy oil or coconut oil are better sources of energy than palm oil: at least during the first three weeks of age.
  • A minimum of 0.30 % of salt will help to increase feed intake.

Grower

  • Transition to mash feed if the starter was crumble feed.
  • A minimum of 0.28 % of salt will help to have enough feed intake.
  • A minimum of added fat will reduce the dustiness of the mash feed (1 – 2 % based on cost impact).

Developer

  • Crude fibre level needs to be as high as possible based on the available raw materials (>3 %, up to 5.5 %). See possible raw materials to supply the necessary fibre (table 9).
  • These values can be applied, or even exceeded, as long as they are of good quality.
  • If the available raw materials don’t allow you to follow the recommendations below. Your Nutritionist should make a proportionally higher specification and the feed mill needs to make a higher particle size feed to compensate the lack of fibre.
  • A minimum of added fat will reduce the dustiness of the mash feed (1 – 2 % based on cost impact).

Others

  • Calcium particle size in pullet feed should be fine (average 1 mm).
  • Enzymes: use and effect in the diet should be based on the available substrate in the diet.
  • Antioxidants: protect against oxidation of the oils in the feed mill and the oxidation of fats and others in the diet.
  • Organic minerals: provide additional benefits to the existing inorganics and may reduce the inclusion levels of the minerals.

Nutrient requirements

Fibre in the diet

  • The feed intake development is one of the key factors for developing a pullet ready to lay. The feed intake capacity is related to the gut size, the addition of fibre in the diet expands the size of the gut and improves the feed intake capacity.
  • The fibre concept is getting complex in poultry. There is new knowledge showing how different types have a different effect.
  • Fibre can be classified like: The total dietary fibre (TDF) is a sum of water soluble fibre (WSF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) crude fibre (CF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL).
  • The addition of certain level of fibres since early ages will support the feed intake capacity (see table 10).
  • There are several raw materials that can supply the necessary fibre in the diets to develop the feed intake capacity (table 9).

Energy

  • The energy requirement in feed is given as a range because of the several systems available for energy evaluation.

Amino acids

  • They follow the recommended Ideal Protein Ratio (table 7).

Vitamins and minerals

  • See table 8



Onset of lay nutrition

Feed description and management

  • A transition feed that supports the final development of the pullet and the nutrient need for the start of lay.
  • This feed is recommended to use until you reach 70 % of laying rate and have an increasing feed intake curve.
  • This feed could be given since week 17 as replacement of the pre-lay.

Nutrients requeriments

  • The ideal protein profile is the same as in the layer rations.
  • The vitamins and minerals are the same as in the layer rations.
  • Crude fibre: keeping high levels as in the developer feed supports the feed intake development.
  • Try to have a level minimum of 3.5 % or higher.

Formulation tips

  • The addition of fats will give the formulation room for the requested calcium and fibre.
  • A minimum of salt, 0.28 %, will help in the feed intake stimulation.
  • 60 % of the calcium carbonate should be in coarse particle size.

Feed description and management

Type of feed

  • The feed should fulfill the maintenance, growth and production needs. The feed should be adjusted when:

• Egg mass changes: DO NOT change amino acids if the % lay drops unless the egg mass (% lay x size egg) is dropping too;
• Body weight changes: body weight affects energy needs, around +/-4 kcal every 50 grams of body weigh change;
• Calcium and phosphorus requirement changes: the phosphorus requirement decreases and the calcium requirement increases as the bird gets older;
• Feed intake changes: housing temperature will impact the feed intake. Hot temperature reduces the feed intake and vice versa.

Feed management on farm

  • Due to the variability of the raw materials the nutrient composition of the feed varies, to avoid this challenge we recommend to follow the Chart 1 decision tree:

Feed recommendation

  • 40 % in the morning and 60 % in the afternoon (chart 2).
  • Layer hens should clear all feed left in the feeder during the noon period.
  • The time at which the feeder is empty depends on the lighting program.

Nutrient requirements

  • Recommendations below are based on egg mass production.
  • After the Onset feed it is recommended to use the 60–58 egg mass recommendation until the target egg weight is achieved. The other recommendations can be applied to control the egg size on target or when the egg mass production drops as the layer hen gets older.

Energy

  • The energy recommendation of this guide doesn’t take into account the effect of the temperature in the needs of the layer hen. It needs additional adjustments by the nutritionist.
  • Most of the energy intake will be used for maintenance. The body weight of the bird drives the energy requirement (see chart 3).
  • There are different models to approach the energy evaluation, literature references (INRA, FEDNA, NRC . . .) usually in MEn and calculations based on formulas, whereby the different elements of the raw materials are taken into account. Due to the variability of the values given by different systems, the recommendation of energy is defined as a range.
  • Energy recommendation is calculated for a specific body weight of the bird and might need adjustments (see foot notes of table 12).

Amino acids

  • Most of the amino acid intake will be used for egg mass production. The egg mass, % lay x egg size, drives the amino acid needs (chart 4)
  • The total amino acid recommendation is based on a feed with 85 % digestibility. It will need further adjustments by the nutritionist based on the digestibility of the diets of each customer. The formulation can be done using total or digestible AA.
  • Do not use both values at the same time.
  • Working with digestible AA is highly recommended when low digestible raw materials are used in the diet (see table 19 for the Ideal Protein Ratio recommendation).

Minerals and vitamins

  • The vitamin and mineral requirement is shown in table 16.

Ca/P

  • Ca and P requirement is shown in table 20.

• Adapt the data in table 15 to suit the
feed intake target.
• Example: Av P requirement after peak 380
mg: if feed intake is 115 grams, the minimum amount in feed should be 0.33 %.

Formulation tips

Crude Protein

  • Using the minimum amount of crude protein is recommended if there is limited information about the raw materials.

Fat

  • Added fat will reduce the dustiness of mash feed (1 – 2 % based on cost impact).

Ca/P balance

• Levels of Ca and P must be adapted as
the layer hen gets older.
• An excess or deficiency of P can cause
eggshell issues in the short or long term.
• Coarse limestone is necessary for eggshell quality. It can be replaced in part by
oyster shells.
• Table 23 indicates the limestone particle
ratio in layers.
• Table 22 indicates how much grit should
be added directly to the feeding system.

Others

  • Enzymes: use and effect in the diet should be based on the available raw materials in the diet.
  • Antioxidants: protect against oxidation of the oils in the feed mill and the oxidation of fats and others in the diet.
  • Organic minerals: provide additional benefits to the existing inorganics and may reduce the inclusion levels of the minerals.
Brown nick
Crystal | Super nick | Nick chick | Coral
Brown nick
Crystal | Super nick | Nick chick | Coral
Brown nick
Crystal | Super nick | Nick chick | Coral



Feed structure

Mash feed is the most commonly used feed throughout the world. Layer hens tend to eat the larger particles avoiding the fine particle s which is where most of the key nutrients are. Therefore, it is vital for successful nutrition to have a uniform particle structure. It is even more important in non-beak treated birds. Crumble and pellet forms can be used as long as the structure holds in the feeding system of the birds and it doesn’t become a fine particle mash.

Key points of the uniformity in mash diets

  • Grinding of the raw materials
  • Particle size of the protein sources
  • Addition of liquids like oil that reduces the dustiness of feed
  • Reduction of fine particle raw materials
  • A good feed structure is even more important with non beak treated birds.
  • See table 20 and 21 for feed particle size in pullet and layer feeds.

Feed quality

Nutrients

Good information is needed to formulate a realistic diet. A combination of available literature, wet chemistry methods and/or NIR is necessary to generate an updated matrix of the raw materials we use.

Microbiology

There are no specific guidelines in place, however the lower the contamination, the better the performance parameters. Ensure adequate control measures are in place to prevent microbiological risk factors in the diet. Extremely important is the prevention of SALMONELLA; stronger control measures than laying hens.

Oxidation

Oils in the feed mill and fat in the diet are the commonest components of oxidation. The quality control plan of raw materials should include analysis of the oxidation status of oils, evaluating at least two parameters of the available methods.

Mycotoxins

Follow the guidelines available in your country and literature to prevent negative effects on layer hen health and production. Adapt the use of mycotoxin binders to suit the level of risk in the diet and the contamination load in the raw materials.

Antinutritional factor

Good understanding of the ANF will allow higher or lower inclusion levels of the raw materials.

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