Results of using various cage equipment on the poultry farm of the OOO “APF Eniseyskaya”

Abstract

In Russia, chickens of commercial flocks are kept in various cage battery systems both foreign and domestic. Determining the effectiveness of using various cage battery systems under specific production conditions is an urgent task of science and practice. The research goal is to investigate the effectiveness of using various cage battery systems for keeping commercial flock laying hens on the poultry farm of the OOO “APF Eniseyskaya”. It should be noted that the experiment involved Brown Nick cross laying hens; the birds were 120 days old at the beginning of the experiment and 180 days old at the end. The number of birds in the groups amounted to 30,000 heads. Four-tier ARUAS cage battery system was used for the control group with 9 heads per cage; the feed distribution system provided less frequent supply of compound feed in larger quantities (the birds selected the best particles); the egg collection system was longer due to additional operations. Five-tier ZUCAMI cage battery system was used for the trial group with 11 heads per cage; the feed distribution system provided more frequent supply of compound feed (the birds ate all the feed); the egg collection system was shorter due to the elevator. It was found that the gross egg collection in the trial group exceeded that of the control by 30.3%. When collecting eggs, a certain number of them were damaged in the form of breakage and cracks. This index in the experimental group was lower than in the control by 1.74%. During the experiment, feed consumption was taken into account and it was found that in the trial group this index was lower compared to the control by 1.7%. In the trial group, the survival rate was significantly higher than in the control - by 2.6%. It was found that the economic effect of using ZUCAMI cage battery system amounted to 418 thousand rubles. Such economic effect is due to the fact that ZUCAMI cage battery systems have more advanced feed distribution and egg collection systems which led to a significant increase of the productive qualities of the commercial flock.