Demand Driven Productivity in the Egg Business
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Demand Driven Productivity in the Egg Business Prof. Dr. Dietmar K. Flock Dr. Flock and Dr. Havenstein came from Iowa State University (Animal Bree- ding) and the University of Wisconsin (Poultry Science) when they first met as colleagues at Heisdorf & Nelson Farms, where they were introduced to mo- dern poultry breeding. The authors have followed developments in different parts of the world for more than 50 years and review how progress in genetic potential was combined with improved labor efficiency, disease control and nutrition to produce eggs at least cost for the changing global demand. To contact the author: Mail at [email protected] Demand Driven Productivity in the Egg Business: Combining Advances in Genetics, Health Control and Nutrition to Meet Changing Consumer Preferences Abstract feed efficiency and carcass value in meat- poultry diseases more effectively, based Since seven decades, poultry meat and type chickens, while heterosis effects were on diagnostics, eradication and prophyl- egg consumption in many countries has exploited to maximize egg production, actic vaccination. Modern poultry nutriti- been accelerating at a faster rate than feed efficiency and egg quality in egg- on is based on least cost feed formulation global population growth. In this review, type chickens. A small number of primary for individual flocks to minimize feed cost we will focus on key contributions of ap- poultry breeders continue to improve the per egg in layer stock, and to minimize plied science and technology which exp- genetic potential for efficient production feed cost per unit of meat produced in lain the efficiency of today’s production: of poultry meat and eggs and supply li- broilers, making best possible use of lo- the change from hatch seasons and egg censed hatcheries in many countries with cally available resources, while minimizing production in open houses to hatching parent stock to multiply the improved ef- the environmental impact of production. throughout the year and egg production ficiency. Electronic data management is in environment-controlled houses to sup- used to optimize logistics and the flow of Introduction ply fresh eggs for urban consumers on de- information in a global network of produc- Some developments in our life are easier mand. Initially, simple mass selection was tion and marketing. Results of research in to understand if we look at them in terms applied to maximize juvenile growth rate, poultry pathology are applied to control of evolution. Since Darwin shocked the 30 Vol. 49 (1), July 2015 | LOHMANN Information establishment of his time with his theo- the practice of growing about 90 percent rily in small flocks to assure self-sufficiency ry of the descent of man, many excellent of the males for human food slowly de- for eggs and chicken meat for the family books have been published on evolution veloped over time. The next step was to who owned them, and possibly for a small to confirm that evolution is not only the develop management procedures to dis- local market. With increasing urbanization most plausible explanation for past deve- courage broodiness, and to hatch large of societies, some farmers began speciali- lopments, but a continuing process (Wei- numbers of chicks in hatcheries with con- zing in egg production, others in hatching ner, 1994). The same principle holds not trolled temperature and humidity. Initially chicks and selling ready-to-lay pullets, and only for all species of plants and animals the males were generally raised and sold flock size tended to increase when eggs (including man), but also for ecosystems, for human meat consumption, and the could be sold at an attractive price. During human societies, ideas and technical in- females were kept to produce eggs for the 19thand early 20thcenturies, poultry ventions: every mutation or invention human consumption. When egg produc- organizations were founded to promote has to be “better” than previous models tion dwindled to a point where the hens information on the husbandry and pro- to compete successfully against tradition were no longer profitable, they were also duction of poultry meat and eggs as a and the establishment. slaughtered for food production. means of increasing farm income. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Poultry de- Evidence for the domestication of chi- As documented in recent FAO Statistics, partments were established at agricultural ckens has been reported from China as chickens in recent years have become schools, colleges and universities, often early as 6000 B.C.. Initially, people proba- the most successful domesticated animal combining research with teaching and bly enjoyed seeing chickens near their species in terms of the numbers of ani- outreach or extension programs. dwellings and attracted them with some mals grown (25 billion), as well as in terms feed or left-over food. Shelter and defense of their contribution to human nutrition The USA became the leading country in against predators was not yet essential as (67.3 million tons of eggs/yr and 107.5 mil- efficient poultry production, based on long as they could find an elevated place lion tons of poultry meat/yr). These pro- novel research and the application of to roost at night. In the spring, as the days duction figures may serve as a reference theory to practice. Initially, some breeds grew longer and warmer, each hen would for governments and NGOs concerned were placed under a program, called the produce a “clutch” of eggs. She would then about adequate human nutrition of peo- Registry of Production (ROP) that utilized become broody and set on them. Three ple currently suffering from starvation or individual bird production records obtai- weeks later the chicks would hatch. If peo- malnutrition. The main obstacles to increa- ned by trap-nesting. ROP breeders then ple (or other predators) found and consu- sed poultry consumption are: (1) traditions selected the best performing individuals med the eggs before the chicks hatched, and limited purchasing power in develo- from their trap-nest records to reproduce the hen would try to find a better hiding ping countries; (2) lack of information on the next generation. ROP breeders (like place and lay another clutch of eggs, until the nutritional value of poultry meat and poultry breeders in Europe) were also the end of the season. Centuries later, peo- eggs, compared to other sources of food; required to follow breed standards that ple noticed that hens continue to lay eggs (3) objection to products from intensive required that any birds used for breeding in the same nest, as long as one or more animal farming by consumers who associ- had to be totally free of any defects such eggs are left. Apparently birds can “count” ate low food prices with poor animal wel- as crooked toes, cross-beaks, the wrong and try to lay a typical number of eggs be- fare and excessive use of antibiotics. This color of earlobes, the wrong color of the fore they go broody. review will try to explain key factors which shanks, feathers on the shanks, etc., all of have contributed to and accelerated the which caused some potentially very pro- We will never know for sure, whether peo- development of today’s efficient poultry mising breeders to be discarded rather ple started to eat eggs before chicken industry. than kept to improve the breed’s produc- meat, but they must have known that the tivity. Selection for phenotype did not sex ratio at hatch is about 1:1, and if too How broiler breeding star- increase productivity significantly. Thus, many males survive to sexual maturity, ted on the East Coast of the progress on improving the productivity they will start to fight and kill each other, USA of a breed under that system was extre- until only the most dominant is left. Thus, For many years, chickens were kept prima- mely slow, and when they were making 31 Demand Driven Productivity in the Egg Business their selections they were not taking into introduce RRS in his White Leghorn lines. pure white feathers and a much nicer ap- account negative genetic correlations bet- Results presented at the European Poultry pearing carcass for the meat-type breeds. ween some of the important traits, such as Conference in Hamburg (Flock, 1980) indi- Eventually, the broiler market also moved egg production, egg size and shell quality. cated that the reciprocal crosses exceeded toward the use of dominant white female For example, improvement in egg number the average of the parent lines by 20% in line breeders and Cornish dominant white generally resulted in hens that produced hen-housed egg production, while the F2 male breeders. The Cornish lines produced smaller eggs. and back-cross combinations were inter- broader breasted and faster growing birds mediate, as expected from theory. Today, that were very attractive to consumers. During the 1940s, Jay L. Lush, I.M. Lerner all commercial egg-type chickens are cros- These white feathered meat-type breeds and a number of their students developed ses between two or more lines, and they rapidly replaced all of the brown-feathered statistical approaches to animal breeding. are vastly superior to the strains that were breeds during the late 1960s. Those statistical systems, combined with used in the first half of the 20th century. the development of computers that could Reducing the number of days to reach quickly analyze thousands of records mo- For a number of reasons, modern meat market weight (3 lbs or 1350 grams) was ved the science of animal breeding for- type chickens have a somewhat different simple and effective with mass selec- ward, and the poultry industry responded history than do egg type chickens. The tion. All birds were individually weighed with the development of a number of ma- primary trait was body weight or juvenile and graded for body conformation, the jor poultry breeding organizations.