Hybrid Feed – New strategy in layer hen feed at begin of manufacturing

The precise genetic enhancements in layer hens are offering the market with a layer hen producing saleable dimension eggs faster than earlier than and lengthening the manufacturing life. These two parameters are associated to the beginning of the manufacturing. feed consumption at first of manufacturing assures a great egg dimension at the start of manufacturing and a great eggshell high quality on the finish.

A. Akpulat and X. Arbe Ugalde – H&N Worldwide, Cuxhaven, Germany

Firstly of manufacturing, a second bone improvement occurs that can load the bones of the layer hens with calcium, that’s important within the calcification of the egg throughout manufacturing. The hybrid feed is a advice of easy methods to strategy the layer hen feed at first of manufacturing simply after the developer rearing feed part is completed. This hybrid feed is a mixture of ideas of rearing developer feed and manufacturing feed; it should stimulate feed consumption improvement and could have sufficient vitamins to assist the physique and bone improvement occurring when the primary egg is produced and it may be utilized in any layer hen, brown or white. This feed is supposed to be safer and cheaper resolution than different conventional approaches of feeding layer hens and it helps the genetic potential of the birds.

Introduction
The continual genetic enhancements are growing the primary business egg dimension produced and lengthening the manufacturing lifetime of the layer hens worldwide. These enhancements are associated to what occurs at rearing and at first of the manufacturing. Early research confirmed that whereas roughly 60 to 75% of the calcium destined for the shell comes instantly from intestinal absorption, as much as 36% could possibly be traced to bones. This bone supply is important since shell calcification happens through the darkish interval, when the hen just isn’t consuming. Correct skeletal improvement is integral throughout pullet progress, which has a primary interval of progress through the first 6 weeks of rearing and a second interval of progress with lengthy bones reaching their most size and cortical bone reaching optimum thickness by week 22 of age. Upon activation of the reproductive axis and in preparation for the laying cycle, growing estradiol 17-beta (E2) concentrations shift the exercise of osteoblasts towards the formation of medullary bone, with cortical bone accumulation terminated earlier than lay. This medullary bone is deposited on the inside, endosteal floor of the cortex within the marrow cavities of lengthy bones, with the biggest reserve within the femur, adopted by the tibia. This second part of calcium deposition may be very dependent of the feed consumption at first of manufacturing. Nutritionists have totally different approaches when the beginning of manufacturing occurs in layer hens and as we speak there’s a new choice advised by H&N Worldwide referred to as Hybrid Feed that goals to assist the beginning of manufacturing higher than present and conventional approaches.

Idea of Hybrid Feed
The feed consumption improvement at the start of manufacturing will permit the fowl to have the right nutrient consumption. This feed goals to maintain creating the feed consumption because it occurs on the finish of rearing of the pullet and provide sufficient vitamins to assist the bone improvement and the manufacturing of the primary egg. The numbers advisable within the Hybrid Feed ought to be tailored to the totally different uncooked materials info sources and to the out there uncooked supplies available in the market. Right here beneath an outline of the principals and suggestions when creating a Hybrid Feed:

• Low vitality food regimen: the feed consumption of the layer hens is regulated by energy consumption. Throughout the developer part of the pullet the feed ought to focus in creating the feed consumption capability of the fowl, the metabolizable vitality content material of the Hybrid Feed ought to be just like the developer feed, round 2650-2750 kcal/kg, relying on the supply/s of data used to guage the vitality of the uncooked supplies. This strategy stimulates the feed consumption at first of the manufacturing, and it’ll not damage the beginning of the manufacturing as a result of the manufacturing wants are nonetheless low, and the feed consumption and composition of the Hybrid Feed will present the mandatory vitamins.
• Fibre content material of the food regimen: low density diets can be accomplished by fibre. There are alternative ways we are able to classify the kind of fibre; it was proven that with the generally used uncooked supplies in layer hen food regimen, the rise of the crude fibre has a optimistic impact in intestine improvement and subsequently the feed consumption capability of the birds.
• Amino acids stage: the amino acids stage is just like the layer part 1 advice. There can be sufficient amino acids for physique weigh progress and egg manufacturing. The amino acids necessities aren’t most till week 22-23 of age because the flock is in full manufacturing (Desk 1). Nevertheless, as a result of low feed consumption it’s essential to have a excessive focus of the amino acids to make sure that there can be an sufficient provide.
• Calcium stage: the common hen requires 2.2 g of calcium for every eggshell formation. Firstly of manufacturing, we could have a progress of the bones and we could have some early productive hens. As per the bone improvement with 2-2.5% of calcium stage could be sufficient, nevertheless the early producing fowl want extra. Subsequently, the advice is to formulate to three.8% Ca in browns and 4% in whites layer hens. What’s necessary is the supply of calcium, to keep away from attainable feed refusal the coarse calcium carbonate ought to be the 60-70% of the entire calcium carbonate within the food regimen. The particle dimension of the coarse calcium carbonate ought to be 2-4 mm.
• Phosphorus stage: the phosphorus stage in poultry is expounded to the feed consumption and the expansion of the birds, important on this stage and in layer hens it’s associated to the calcium deposition within the bones. Subsequently, the extent of obtainable phosphorus ought to be as excessive as within the layer part 1 advice, 0.44 % in browns and 0.46 % in whites.
• Excessive stage of salt: the salt is a uncooked materials associated to the feed consumption in birds. It has been proven that salt stimulates the water consumption and feed consumption. Subsequently, it is strongly recommended to incorporate salt on the stage of 0.28%. It shouldn’t get replaced with a stage of sodium within the food regimen. Using sodium bicarbonate as uncooked materials within the layer diets might full the wants of sodium requirement within the food regimen however it doesn’t have the identical feed consumption stimulation impact because the salt. Subsequently, will probably be necessary to make sure that now we have the extent of salt within the food regimen, and we don’t exceed the utmost of 0.34% of chloride as nutrient.

All this parameter will make the food regimen, however additionally it is concerning the use on the farm.

Use of Hybrid Feed
There are challenges on the farm when getting correct knowledge at first of manufacturing. The lengthy switch interval from rearing to manufacturing home and the stress of the arrival make it troublesome to calculate the feed consumption at first of manufacturing. As well as, the low manufacturing of the flock delays the egg assortment of the flock, subsequently we don’t have an correct knowledge of the each day manufacturing.

Using Hybrid feed meant to be easy and straightforward to use, subsequently that is the advisable program:

1. Home the pullets in manufacturing with Rearing Improvement feed, so long as there wasn’t a earlier gentle stimulation of the flock at rearing.
2. Hybrid feed ought to be out there to the hens as quickly as the sunshine stimulation is given to the pullets.
3. Hybrid feed can be offered till 70% of manufacturing is achieved. It will occur across the week 21-22 of age and will probably be straightforward to have an correct knowledge of the % of manufacturing because the egg assortment is recurrently executed on the farm at this age. The feed consumption by then can be round 95-100 grams/hen and even increased if the pullet had a great feed improvement.
4. The following feed ought to be a 60-58 egg mass goal feed because the egg manufacturing will attain the height.

Benefits of Hybrid Feed
There are different approaches through the onset interval like utilizing a pre-lay feed and/or a super-starter feed. Each approaches have shortcomings that Hybrid Feed doesn’t and has all the benefits of a pre-lay or super-starter feed.

The pre-lay feed is supposed to be a transition feed between pullet and manufacturing, nevertheless the applying on the farm stage may be very troublesome and harmful. The pre-lay feed use is advisable to do by two methods, and each are troublesome to use:

• Use of pre-lay till 2-5% of manufacturing: this advice doesn’t think about that many farms don’t accumulate the eggs each day when the flock is beginning in manufacturing. The egg assortment is set by the workload on the farm and the way the egg assortment belts appear like; subsequently, a whole lot of errors can occur. The pre-lay food regimen might be prolonged too lengthy and early producer hens can change into decalcified, cease the manufacturing and within the peak of manufacturing we could have peaks of manufacturing 2- 5% decrease than the usual.
• Use of pre-lay 0.5-1 kilogram per fowl: this advice forgets that there’s variation of the feed consumption on the pullets as a consequence of impact of climate modifications and feed improvement challenges throughout rearing. This advice could have similar consequence because the earlier one and even we are able to have issues of eggshell high quality late in manufacturing.

One other strategy is utilizing an excellent starter of lay after the developer feed or after the usage of the pre-lay. This tremendous starter of lay is extremely concentrated feed in vitamins and really costly; it’s designed for supplying all of the vitamins wanted at this important second. Nevertheless, it creates new challenges: the excessive vitality of this feed restricts the feed consumption improvement of the layers, subsequently, many instances the birds don’t have sufficient nutrient consumption on the peak of the manufacturing; it should result in manufacturing drop on the peak of the manufacturing when altering to a layer 1 food regimen due to lack of feed consumption; or it should push the farmer to make use of an costly feed till 40 weeks of age as a result of the layer hen doesn’t eat sufficient vitamins.

The hybrid is a confirmed different that skips the disadvantages of the opposite suggestions and has all the benefits (Desk 2). The use may be very pleasant for the farmers and it offers a less expensive resolution for the beginning and peak of the manufacturing.

Expertise of Hybrid Feed
Using Hybrid Feed began in 2019 and it retains growing the acceptance as it’s examined by the egg producers. This feed was examined in Australian situations in caged brown birds and cage free brown birds; at the moment, we might see a great feed consumption improvement, efficiency of the birds was on requirements (Determine 1) with good eggshell high quality. There are extra optimistic experiences when utilizing Hybrid feed in brown layer markets like Colombia or Ecuador and in white markets like in USA and Canada. 

In all these experiences utilizing the Hybrid feed now we have seen an enchancment of the feed consumption improvement and a quicker egg dimension improvement with out affecting the efficiency of the birds.

Conclusions
Using the Hybrid Feed is a brand new strategy to the beginning of manufacturing the place totally different challenges occur. This new strategy can exchange the earlier practices which can be troublesome to use at farm stage or are too pricey. Using the Hybrid Feed ought to be a part of the feed consumption improvement program the place first step begins on the develop part of the pullet. At this stage there ought to be a feed consumption capability improvement and later at begin the manufacturing Hybrid Feed would be the excellent match for having a bone improvement, sexual maturity progress and first egg manufacturing. The Hybrid Feed brings options to a important a part of the egg manufacturing, the beginning of manufacturing, irrespective of the breed.

References can be found on request
From the Proceedings of the Australian Poultry Science Symposium 2023