Here is the situation: he has been using my feed mix (http://eco-ranch.us/POULTRYFEEDMIX.pdf) for several months with good results. I had recommended that he substitute an 18% hog feed for the corn and part of the soy in his mix, as hog feed will have a pre-mix already added which would save money. This worked, until one day the mill that grinds his feed had a substitute miller who assumed that the "hog feed" was a mistake and added corn & soy instead.
The farmer's egg production doubled! He went back to the old mix next grind and his production halved! What is the problem?????
I thought that his hens may be getting broody, or broody signals from their bodies and were laying less eggs, then they stopped being broody and changed. But this generally affects only 10-15% of our flock and has little impact on our egg production. Plus, his hens are "patent" hens, a hybrid developed for egg production and that trait is suppressed in patent breeds.
My next thought was wheat. Wheat will slow digestion and a lot of wheat will cause a significant drop in egg production. I looked and several hog feed mixes from mills around the country and about one-in-three does use some wheat....... but his mill did not and wheat is very hard for him to find in New York, so that is out.
I noticed that the sodium level in hog premixes is quite a bit higher that in most poultry premixes. Thinking I was on to something, I checked the one I used in Florida where I learned what little I know about feeds and yes, that mix was NOT higher in sodium.
This farmer also added barley to his mix instead of milo (sorghum), as milo is not available in his area. Barley is very hard and thus very hard to digest.... but he was using it when his production was up.
The only thing we did not explore, was sunlight/artificial light. I did not ask this, as I assumed he should have that handled as a current egg producer. But the length of the day always affects egg production and if he depended on natural light only this could have been the issue. We use artificial light all night long here. We do this not so much to improve egg production, but to discourage predators. However the result is good egg production year-around.
So all I could recommend was this: do not use a hog feed, split the corn and soy and add a poultry pre-mix. Stop using barley and carefully monitor the egg production now that the season is stable and see what happens. I did feel rather inadequate in not knowing exactly what his problem was, but life is a learning experience and this has motivated me to try to learn more, for the benefit of us all!
No comments:
Post a Comment