Optimized nutrient supply of dual-purpose chickens

Background and Objective

The projects intend is to further develop organic farming in general and poultry farming in particular, in its goal as a particularly resource-saving and environmentally compatible form of farming. On the one hand, the question is to be answered to what extent potentials in feed intake for less high-yielding or conventional animals can be exploited through lower requirements and savings with regard to nutrient density. On the other hand, which possibilities arise to avoid further losses in the agricultural material flow in the reduced ration, to significantly reduce or substitute the share of resource-sensitive feeding components and to minimize the implied negative environmental impacts.
The focus is on testing the potential of alternative protein sources on two levels. Both in direct feeding in the protein-sensitive area of poultry feeding and in the cascade of upstream production of animal protein components for poultry feeding.

Approach

Several feeding trials are conducted with dual-purpose chickens and laying hybrids. The aim of the "nutrient reduction" part of the trial is to approximate a methionine density in the ration that corresponds to the performance of the dual-purpose hens. For both the dual-purpose hens and the laying hybrids tested concomitantly, an increase in feed intake is to be provoked by lowering the energy content of the ration in order to be able to meet the animals' requirements even with a lower proportion of methionine-rich feed components in the ration.
The aim of the following feeding trial "crickets" is to (partially) replace methionine-rich vegetable feed components with regionally produced crickets in order to further reduce the required amount of scarce vegetable feed components on the one hand, and to enrich organic laying hen feeding with a feed component that is natural for the chicken on the other hand. In addition, the work package will test "cricket" feeding in rearing laying hens and its effects on laying hen performance.

The effect of nutrient-reduced feeding on the performance of dual-purpose chickens on practical farms is examined in a field test in laying hen and fattening groups. Different feeding concepts, which include a nutrient reduction and/or an increase in the proportion of regional feed components, are included.