The historical Lutherstadt Wittenberg was the location for a seminar on layer farming on 29-31 May 2012 organized for customers of the poultry franchise hatcheries LSL RHEIN-MAIN. More than 40 egg producers from Central and Southern Germany as well as from Austria benefitted during the three days from information on management, feeding and health of layers provided by LOHMANN TIERZUCHT’s experts.


The event was opened by a welcoming speech of Mr. Jürgen Schuster of the LSL sales branch Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg. In the following presentation, Dr. Hans-Heinrich Thiele outlined the structure and markets of LOHMANN TIERZUCHT. Additionally to the breeding products of LOHMANN TIERZUCHT, he also informed about the worldwide market conditions.

Dr. Matthias Schmutz, geneticist at LOHMANN TIERZUCHT, reported on the practical approach in layer breeding. In a descriptive manner he explained the selection focus areas, which should further improve the performance of LOHMANN layers.

The subject of the next presentation by Dr. Hans-Heinrich Thiele was layer management in practice. He talked about management measures contributing to exploit the full potential of LOHMANN layers. His very practice-oriented suggestions included as well aspects of lighting and adapted pullet rearing, due to the fact that already during rearing, the pullets have to be appropriately prepared for housing during egg production.

Mr. Robert Pottgüter, feeding expert of LOHMANN TIERZUCHT, informed the egg producers about the challenges of layer nutrition. He reported on how the shell quality can be influenced by feeding during the complete laying period. Furthermore, he emphasized that the structure of the layer feed is the first quality criterion. Only feed having a good homogeneity can avoid selective eating and thus, prevents the layers from an unbalanced supply of nutrients.

Mr. Farhad Mozafar covered the issue poultry red mite telling about its physiology and behaviour. Only after having understood the latter, one could effectively fight the poultry red mite. As there are just very limited possibilities to combat poultry red mite by chemical means, he added tips to his speech on how to minimise the poultry red mite infestation by means of alternative control methods.

Ms. Dr. Atoussa Mazaheri, one of the veterinary specialist of LOHMANN TIERZUCHT, provided information for the audience regarding poultry diseases and common vaccination methods. She explicitly stated that a good hygiene management contributes the most for keeping a stock healthy. Thus, no vaccination programme could replace a good hygiene monitoring.

The successful event was rounded off by a varied evening entertainment. A guided historic city tour in the footsteps of Martin Luther and a boat excursion on the river Elbe offered the attendees the possibility to get to know each other and to exchange experiences.

Finally, Mr. Markus Zahn, Managing Director of the poultry franchise hatcheries LSL RHEIN-MAIN, personally thanked all involved for their participation.

Djanet Ould-Ali, Technical Service


Seminar participants and speakers in front of the statue Katharina von Bora in Wittenberg