Evaluation of limit feeding corn and distillers dried grains with solubles in non-feed-withdrawal molt programs for laying hens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted using 504 Hy-Line W-36 Single Comb White Leghorn hens (69 wk of age) randomly assigned to 1 of 7 treatments. These treatments consisted of a 47% corn:47% soy hulls diet (C:SH) fed ad libitum; a 94% corn diet fed at a rate of 36.3, 45.4, or 54.5 g/hen per day (CORN 36, CORN 45, and CORN 54, respectively); and a 94% corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) diet fed at the same rates as the previous corn diets (DDGS 36, DDGS 45, and DDGS 54, respectively) during the molt period of 28 d. The intent was to feed the DDGS diets for 28 d; however, all hens on these diets had very low feed intakes and greater than anticipated BW loss. Thus, they were switched to a 16% CP corn-soybean meal layer diet on d 19 of the molt period. At d 28, hens on all treatments were fed the same corn-soybean meal layer diet for 39 wk (73 to 112 wk of age). All DDGS diets and the CORN 36 diet resulted in total cessation of egg production during the molt period and egg production of hens fed the CORN 45, CORN 54, and C:SH diets had decreased to 3 and 4%, respectively, by d 28. Body weight loss during the 28-d molt period ranged from 14% for the CORN 54 diet to approximately 23% for the 3 DDGS diets. Postmolt egg production (5 to 43 wk) was higher for hens fed the DDGS molt diets than those fed the corn diets. There were no consistent differences in egg mass, egg-specific gravity, feed efficiency, or layer feed consumption among molt treatments for the postmolt period. These results indicate that limit feeding corn diet and DDGS diet in non-feed-withdrawal molt programs will yield long-term postmolt performance that is comparable to that observed by ad libitum feeding a C:SH diet.

Effects of Organic Selenium and Zinc on the Aging Process of Laying Hens

“…To reduce stress and induce molting, the hens in this study were subjected only to 7 d of low density feed, instead of feed and water withdrawal. Feeding crushed corn only to induce molting has not been reported to alter post-molting performance [8]. It appears that the method used in our study did not severely affect the physiological requirements of the hens.…”

“…Diet 1 (control) was not supplemented with Se or Zn [8]; Diet 2 was supplemented with Se only (0.3 ppm/kg of feed); Diet 3 was supplemented with Zn only (20 ppm/kg of feed); and Diet 4 was supplemented with Se (0.3 ppm/kg) and Zn (20 ppm/kg) of feed. Hens were provided water with the diets ad libitum for 5 wks.…”

“…These strategies include the utilization of high fiber diets [4], skip-a-day feeding [5], high calcium diets [6] and low energy feed [7]. Some of these strategies have raised animal welfare concerns because of the possibility of undesirable effects on the overall well-being of the laying hens [8]. The well-being of the birds during molting and their subsequent performance during post-molting have become a major concern [9], and some fast food industries will no longer purchase eggs produced by laying operations that use forced-molting programs [3].…”

Evaluation of feeding various sources of distillers dried grains with solubles in non-feed-withdrawal molt programs for laying hens

“…Similar responses were observed in a study conducted by Mejia et al (2011) where varying levels of DDGS with corn, wheat middlings, and soybean hulls were limit fed. In contrast, Mejia et al (2010) had earlier reported that limit feeding high DDGS diets did result in total cessation or zero egg production in a nonfeed-withdrawal molt program in an earlier study. It is hypothesized that the inconsistent results with DDGS in molt diets among studies may be due to the source and quality of the DDGS.…”

Challenges for Plant Breeders from the View of Animal Nutrition

“…Generally, such substances are mainly extracted from the crops and so-called co-products (e.g., soybean meal, rapeseed meal, and cotton seed meal; see [91]) could be available for animal nutrition. Except for the extracted nutrient(s), co-products do not vary strongly from their isogenic counterparts in the composition of main nutrients [156,157], but analyses are necessary for the composition of such co-products.…”