100 % organic feedstuffs for laying hens (OK-Net EcoFeed Practice abstract)

Summary in the original language of the document

100 % organic feed with more utilization of sunflower and soya limits the loss of productivity while meeting regu-latory requirements.
• Increasing organic soya- and sunflower cake in the diet limits the decrease of egg production in 100% or-ganic feedstuffs for layer production (Figure 1). Total eggs per bird was 300 with 95% organic feeding (2017) and 290 eggs per bird with 100% organic feeding.
• If 100 % organic diet is only based on regionally produced feedstuffs (soya from France), the price is 6% higher.
• With 100% organic feed, total farm costs per layer are below the national reference (ITAVI). This result must be put into context since the test farmer works strongly to manage all costs and already had a very good margin before testing 100% organic feeding.
• With the higher feed costs and reduced egg production, the farm sale price was increased to 48 cents per egg. Consumers have accepted the price increase so the farmer can continue feeding 100% organic feed to his layers.
• This trial demonstrates that changing to 100% organic feed is possible for a laying hen system. Here, a reduction in egg numbers was observed but this was partly due to adverse weather conditions. Overall, layer performance was similar to the national reference (mortality, feed conversion ratio, culling weight). In the context of the test farm, technical-economic results are better than the national reference for layers fed with 100% organic. Farmer decisions were a trade-off between organic ethics and egg sale price. It could be interesting to evaluate results from this trial in other systems. Breeders need guidelines for carrying out adaptations to comply with updated organic regulations. Finally, further study of the feasabilty of 100% organic feed from regional production is required.