Muir, W.I.; Akter, Y.; Kho, S.K.Y.; Bruerton, K.; Groves, P.J. The Impact of Lighting Regimen and Feeding Program during Rearing on Hy-Line Brown Pullets at the End of Rearing and during Early Lay. Animals2024, 14, 2850.
Muir, W.I.; Akter, Y.; Kho, S.K.Y.; Bruerton, K.; Groves, P.J. The Impact of Lighting Regimen and Feeding Program during Rearing on Hy-Line Brown Pullets at the End of Rearing and during Early Lay. Animals 2024, 14, 2850.
Muir, W.I.; Akter, Y.; Kho, S.K.Y.; Bruerton, K.; Groves, P.J. The Impact of Lighting Regimen and Feeding Program during Rearing on Hy-Line Brown Pullets at the End of Rearing and during Early Lay. Animals2024, 14, 2850.
Muir, W.I.; Akter, Y.; Kho, S.K.Y.; Bruerton, K.; Groves, P.J. The Impact of Lighting Regimen and Feeding Program during Rearing on Hy-Line Brown Pullets at the End of Rearing and during Early Lay. Animals 2024, 14, 2850.
Abstract
As hen body weight (BW) impacts egg weight (EW) and feed efficiency, egg producers prefer pullets of a specific size to enter the egg-laying cycle. Lighting and feeding programs were tested to achieve target pullet BW. Three feeding programs: Ad libitum (Ad lib); feeding to achieve breed standard weight for age (BSW); feeding to achieve 88% BSW (managed) were used with either control lighting, (CL: 10h light/d from 7 weeks of age (WOA)) or reduced lighting (RL: 9h light/d from 4 WOA). At 16 WOA pullets moved to cages and ad libitum feeding under a step-up photoperiod reaching 16h at 33 WOA. The age and weight of first egg, BW, feed intake (FI), egg production (EP) and EW were measured until 36 WOA. At 16 WOA, pullets reared with Ad lib feeding under CL had higher BW and cumulative FI (CFI) compared to Ad lib feeding under RL. The latter were the earliest and managed pullets under CL the latest, to lay. Control lighting and BSW independently generated the heaviest first eggs. At 36 WOA, BW, EW, CFI and CEP were highest following Ad lib feeding during rearing while CL generated higher BW and EW but lower CEP than RL. Hence lighting and feeding programs throughout rearing can regulate pullet growth and, hen performance throughout early lay.
Keywords
food restriction; reduced lighting; egg quality; egg production; body weight; feed intake; age of first egg; growth; photoperiod
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
