CAGE HOUSING

25 LOHMANN › MANAGEMENT GUIDE 25 tration of 11.4 MJ/kg (2725 kcal) metabolis- able energy, a house temperature of 20 °C and good plumage. Under these conditions the daily feed con- sumption is expected to be as followed: LOHMANN BROWN Layer 110–120 g/day LOHMANN LSL Layer 105–115 g/day The feed formulations for phases 2–3 ca- ter for the reduced requirement for organic nutrients and the increasing requirement for calcium as the hens age. The time for switching diets is determined more by the level of production and the need for calcium rather than by age. Recommended Nutrient Levels per kg of Feed for Different Daily Feed Consumptions LOHMANN BROWN-CLASSIC LOHMANN BROWN-LITE LOHMANN LSL-CLASSIC LOHMANN LSL-LITE Phase Feeding What is the basic idea of a phase feeding program for layers? It is and should be a smooth and continuous adaptation to the – in detail daily – varying nutrient demand of a high prolific layer hen. The nutritional demand for protein, amino acids and the main minerals are changing constantly as the performance changes gradually from the start of lay, reaching the peak performance in terms of laying per- centage and afterwards of egg mass output. Finally in aging layer flocks the egg shell quality is the biggest challenge and needs support from nutrition. All changes in diets need to follow the basic nutrient demand for egg mass production – means mainly amino acids – and the changing demand for opti- mal egg quality. As high prolific layers abso- lutely do not like big changes in the nutrient content of the feed and also in the physical feed structure – all changes must be carried out in small steps and smoothly. Even the raw material composition of the diet should only be changed in small steps. If these re- quirements are ignored – production and egg quality can easily be affected. Basic changes of the content of energy, pro- tein and amino acids should be carried out only with regard to the egg mass perfor- mance of a layer flock. This means that as long as the egg mass output of a flock does not drop – one should not decrease any of these basic nutrients in order to prevent deficiencies which will/would finally harm the flock.