Efficiency of using various cage equipment on the poultry farm of the AO Ptitsefabrika Molodezhnaya

Abstract

Currently, a wide variety of cage equipment systems are used to house commercial chicken flocks which have varying impacts on bird performance and production efficiency. The research goal was to determine the influence of different cage systems (BKN-3 and UniVent 600) on egg production efficiency. The experiment was conducted in the AO Ptitsefabrika Molodezhnaya, a poultry farm specializing in commercial egg production and using the Super Nick cross. Two groups (houses) were formed: the first one was the control group where the layers were housed in the BKN-3 cage systems; the second group was the trial group where the layers were housed in the UniVent 600 cage systems. It should be mentioned that the BKN-3 and UniVent 600 cage systems had three and five tiers, respectively; that affected the flock size in the houses. The feeding conditions and microclimate parameters were identical in the groups and met the modern requirements. The gross egg collection during the experimental period in the second trial group exceeded that of the control group (13,191,360 eggs) by 50.3%. Over the entire experimental period, hen-day egg production, hen housed average and egg-laying rate in the trial group were higher than those in the control by 10.05; 10.4 and 8.6%, respectively. The feed costs in the trial group were 1.12 kg per 10 eggs which was by 8.94% lower than that in the control. The survival rate in the groups was at the level of 92.56-93.25%. In the second trial group, the survival rate exceeded the control by 0.69%. It was found that the use of UniVent 600 battery cages in the second trial group may result in economic effect of 16,533.43 thousand rubles from the trial flock. This effect is due to the increase of the flock and productivity from the use of this cage equipment which has more advanced poultry maintenance systems (particularly, the feeding system).