Three misconceptions about feed nutrition in laying hen farming

To succeed in raising chickens, there are four key factors, namely: excellent breed, comprehensive nutrition, scientific management and effective epidemic prevention, all of which are indispensable, and providing comprehensive nutrition is one of the foundations. However, in production, the site often does not know much about feed nutrition, or even unfamiliar, and there are some misunderstandings.
Misconception 1: High protein means high nutrient concentration.
Chicken feathers, skin, nerves, blood, muscles, eggs, etc. all use protein as the basic component. Enzymes, hormones, antibodies, pigments, etc. in chickens are also synthesized from proteins. Proteins include pure proteins and ammoniated compounds, collectively referred to as crude protein (CP). When it is used in the diet of chickens, it is often expressed as a percentage (%) of crude protein.
The most basic substances that make up protein are more than 20 kinds of amino acids. The protein in the feed is degraded in the digestive tract, and finally decomposed into amino acids to be absorbed by the intestine. Amino acids are divided into essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids.
The so-called essential amino acid means that the chicken cannot be synthesized or can be synthesized but the speed and quantity of synthesis cannot meet the nutritional needs, and must be supplied by feed. It is known that the essential amino acids needed by chickens are lysine, methionine, tryptophan, histidine, arginine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylleucine, valine, threonine and the like.
Among the essential amino acids, they can be divided into two categories. This type is more abundant in the feed. Although it is necessary, it is easier to meet the nutritional needs of chickens. It is called non-restrictive amino acids; the other type has less content and is not easy to feed. To meet the nutritional needs of chickens, this category is called limiting amino acids, such as methionine, lysine, tryptophan and threonine.
Non-essential amino acids refer to those that can be synthesized in chickens and do not necessarily need to be supplied by feed. Protein nutrition is essentially amino acid nutrition. The nutritional effect of amino acids on chickens is like every plank on a wooden barrel, and the production effect is like the water capacity of a wooden barrel. If there is a lack of limiting amino acids in the feed, it is like a shortage of wooden strips on a wooden barrel. At this time, no amount of other amino acids will help, and the production level can only stay at the level of the shortest wooden plank.
Therefore, once the chicken feed lacks amino acids in production, the chickens will grow slowly, with poor feather growth and late maturity, lower egg production rate, and smaller egg weight; waste. The content of amino acids in feed protein is not necessarily the same. If several feeds are used together, the essential amino acids can be supplemented with each other, and the amino acids will increase accordingly.
The level of protein only affects the size of the egg mass, while the level of energy affects the egg production rate. The field data shows that if the energy is directly increased or the energy utilization rate is improved with functional enzymes, various production performances will be better.
Increasing protein will effectively increase the proportion of mucin in egg whites. The viscosity of egg whites is very helpful for egg weight. Egg whites, shell membranes and other substances are mostly synthesized by protein. This is also the principle that increasing protein will increase the weight of eggs.
Although increasing protein will increase the weight of a single egg, some proteins with unbalanced amino acids will not be used by the chicken body, and they will be catabolized by the liver in the form of amino acids. The nitrogen-containing part will form urate, and the part without the nitrogen-containing group will be deposited around the liver or abdominal organs in the form of fatty acids. This paves the way for the later stage of fatty liver and even high death rate.
When adjusting the formula, when the feed intake is no less than 110 grams, the protein requirement is easy to meet, but it is somewhat difficult to meet the energy requirement, especially in winter when the house temperature is low and the moisture content of corn is mostly not at the standard level within the circumstances.
It can be seen that blindly increasing the protein concentration will not necessarily increase the nutrient concentration, but it is not conducive to the production of chickens. It is necessary to scientifically and reasonably set the protein concentration according to the age of the flock, the growth stage and the health of the flock to achieve balanced nutrition.
Misconception 2: Fatty liver in chicken flocks means that the energy is high.
Fatty liver in laying hens generally appears in the late laying period. The better the laying performance of the chicken, the more prone to fatty liver, which leads to increased mortality. Therefore, it is necessary to After the egg production peak, it is necessary to pay attention to the weight, adjust the feed, do a good job of cleaning the trough, and prevent fatty liver in advance.
In production practice, there are often contradictory situations in which chickens have already suffered liver rupture and bleeding caused by fatty liver, but the egg shape index measurement shows that the chickens are lean and the feed energy is insufficient. The reason is that there is a problem with the liver's function of fat metabolism and transformation, or the lack of nutrients related to fat transfer, such as phospholipids and bile acids.
The liver has the function of decomposing and synthesizing amino acids and fats. The liver functions normally and can promote the conversion and synthesis of amino acids, which will accelerate the efficiency of protein synthesis. Free fatty acids will cause more fat to be deposited in the yolk, and the yolk will be larger, which will also increase egg weight. The liver's metabolic function for fat will accelerate the decomposition of fat in the liver faster, which can effectively reduce the incidence of fatty liver.
Balanced nutrition and a healthy liver are crucial to getting good grades.
Misconception 3: If the feed mycotoxin test is qualified, the chicken flock will have no mycotoxin problem In production, this situation is often encountered: the feed mycotoxin test is qualified, but the chicken flock still has typical or atypical mycotoxin symptoms.
In fact, passing the mycotoxin test does not mean that the test is 0, but only means that the national or enterprise standard is met. In fact, it is almost impossible to have feed with 0 mycotoxins. There are many kinds of mycotoxins known, more than 300 kinds, and only 5-6 kinds can be detected routinely. It is conceivable how reliable this is. Coupled with the characteristics of mycotoxins that are difficult to metabolize, decompose, easy to accumulate, hidden and synergistic in chickens, it is not surprising that chickens have typical or atypical symptoms.
In addition, in the process of transportation, storage, driving and trough, if not properly managed, it will also increase the risk of mycotoxins, making the situation worse.
In short, do a good job of source control and strictly control the quality of feed raw materials; do a good job of process control, that is, on-site management, and strengthen the management of feed transportation, use, and storage, such as regularly cleaning the silo of the puller, emptying the silo, and cleaning the pipeline. , Cleaning tanks every day, regularly flushing and disinfecting water lines, and controlling mycotoxins to the lowest level are the fundamental measures to reduce the problem of mycotoxins.

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