©Hy-Line
NUTRITION
Layer nutrition associated with different production systems The egg industry continues to grow; in the past this was in cage production, but today’s growth is focused on alternative production systems such as cage-free or range egg production. Contributing to this growth has been intensive egg production that created concerns about the impact of the cage environment on laying hen well-being.
K. E. Anderson Poultry Extension Specialist, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Both the commercial egg production sector and small producers using heritage strains of chickens, in flocks ranging in size from 100 to 3,000 hens, are responding by producing eggs in cage-free and range settings. However, one of the current issues is that our knowledge base of how these alternative production methods influence hen nutrition and egg production performance is limited to research studies that were conducted in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This information was collected with specific breeds of hens which no longer exist, and not with modern lines of poultry that have been selected for lower body weights and very high rates of egg production.
- nutrition -
