Increased feed prices have hit the egg industry hard – however now is the time for layer producers to consider ways to make their feed go further by looking at energy utilisation.

With feed prices rising between 50% and 80% above the industry average last year, every £5 a tonne that feed increases, an extra penny per egg is added to the cost of production.

“Price volatility has a significant impact on the profitability of a flock, and with concerns that egg prices may fall once hospitality industries open again, it’s more important than ever to maximise energy utilisation of the diet,” explains Mark McFarland, the feed additive product manager at Lallemand Animal Nutrition.

“Energy is a significant driver of feed costs, however, any attempts by producers to reduce energy content in diets can result in lower egg production and quality, which impacts saleable value. It can, therefore, be difficult to identify ways in which costs can be reduced without negatively impacting profits.”

One approach which can be used to help laying hens extract more energy from feed is to use dietary supplementation. Recent trials have demonstrated that adding a probiotic bacteria such as Bactocell, to poultry feed, positively effects feed efficiency and dietary energy utilisation.

“New findings about the effect of this unique probiotic have demonstrated its ability to improve feed efficiency by optimising nutrient digestion and absorption within the poultry gut,” added Mr McFarland.

In the research, layers were fed four different diets: standard energy, reduced energy, standard energy with the addition of Bactocell, and reduced energy with the addition of Bactocell. The results indicated that adding this probiotic to the diet can allow for up to a 100 kcal/kg (0.4MJ/kg) reduction in feed energy, but with laying rate and eggshell thickness being maintained.

As well as this positive finding, regardless of dietary energy, birds which were fed the probiotic supplemented diet demonstrated better productive performance than those without.

“This research identifies a way in which producers can take back some control of feed costs, the biggest cost of egg production.

“Although we can’t change the price of feed ingredients, there are things we can do to make sure birds utilise more of the available dietary energy in feed, helping to improve production efficiency and margins,” concluded Mark.