LOHMANN DO BRASIL

Marcos Borges

STANDS OUT IN THE BRAZILIAN MARKET

DISTRIBUTING LOHMANN LSL-LITE PRODUCTS

LOHMANN products have been synonymous with high standards in breeding and selection procedures for more than 60 years and its presence in the Brazilian market has strengthened year after year.

Egg market in Brazil

The egg market in Brazil is highly competitive and the consumer profile has been changing at a fast pace over the last years.

Nowadays, customers seek a large egg, between 55 and 59 g, as well as highly productive birds to meet the steady growth in egg consumption. This has risen from roughly 190 to the current figure of 230 eggs per capita in just a few years.

This is a market where 75% of the eggs are white and 25% brown, however there are some regions, such as the south of the country, where this share is the other way around.

Such a large market is competed for by nine different white breeds and eight brown breeds. Within this context, LOHMANN do Brasil has been present since 2011 as a subsidiary of LOHMANN TIERZUCHT and is already leader in the country.

For LOHMANN, laying 500 eggs is not enough, since our focus is on producing saleable eggs at a low cost with highest return on investment in our birds.
LOHMANN products are present in all the states of Brazil from the far south (cold environment) to the extreme north (high temperature and high humidity).

LOHMANN products are present in all the states of Brazil from the far south (cold environment) to the extreme north (high temperature and high humidity).

In order to withstand being transported on the long belts that lead to on-farm egg processing areas, the eggs must have an outstanding shell quality that gives the least damage possible.

Egg quality

It is a known fact that customers in Brazil are investing in better welfare, climate control, biosecurity and energy efficiency etc. Following the growth of egg consumption, farms are being transformed into true protein production industries.

Larger operations bring all the previously mentioned advantages but also some significant challenges, the long egg transport system being one of the most profit impacting ones.

In order to withstand being transported on the long belts that lead to on-farm egg processing areas, the eggs must have an outstanding shell quality that gives the least damage possible.

Starting in 2016, the Sales and Service team of LOHMANN do Brasil has added another service category by offering egg quality analysis to their customers, using specific gravity.

This method consists of soaking eggs in different concentrations of a sodium chloride solution in order to find which solution matches the egg and therefore determines the eggshell quality. Lohmann do Brasil uses specific gravity levels from 1.070g/l to 1.100g/l with increments of 10g/l from one solution to another.

The process consists of soaking the eggs from the smaller concentration to the highest. When the egg floats, it is considered to belong to the concentration it floated in. It is well known in the industry that a higher specific density means a better eggshell.

The graph shows the percentage of eggs in the 1.100g/l category in different ages, from different breeds. The figures clearly show that Lohmann LSL flocks have a higher percentage and better quality.

These results have been confirmed in several replicates among many customers and in regions throughout the country over the past four years.

However, as there are some customers who question the efficiency of this methodology, the Sales and Service team of LOHMANN do Brasil once again searched for a new way to demonstrate the better eggshell quality produced by Lohmann birds.

The solution had be more technologically advanced, however most eggshell tester machines are bulky and not portable, making it almost impossible to move them around the country. The few portable versions had calibration problems after experiencing so many shocks on route from farm to farm.

We suggested to the Genetic department at LOHMANN TIERZUCHT that we could possibly work with the same machine they used for their evaluations in Germany.

In January 2020, we imported the small and precise Egg Shell Tester and started a new way of measurement. After just a few measurements it was possible to conclude the already known trait advantage of Lohmann breeds shown by the traditional specific gravity test.

Testing takes place in the presence of the customer. The customer also supplies the eggs so that the team from LOHMANN do Brasil cannot recognise which breed produced the eggs before testing all the samples.

Some of the results are presented below:

Graph 3 shows the shell strength measured in N using the Fast Eggshell Tester tested at the same customer shown in Graphs 1 and 2.

The tester confirms the superiority of the shell quality of the LOHMANN LSL-LITE breed (identified by the brown colour).

This same excellent quality was verified by a specific gravity test.

The graph shows the eggshell strength on another farm with houses that contain 70,000 birds. The farm is in the mid-west of the country with a lot of climate challenges.

Here we can see that LOHMANN LSL-LITE birds produce the best shell strength compared with other breeds of similar ages.

The next graph shows the eggshell strength in the south east of the country where chicken houses hold 50,000 birds each, confirming once again that even older LOHMANN LSL-LITE flocks maintain a better eggshell quality compared with the competitors.

Conclusion

Although we have only worked with the eggshell tester for just a few months, the volume of eggs already tested and the consistency of our findings confirm the already known high quality that has been widely studied in the country in the past years.
We can safely state that LOHMANN LSL-LITE produces the most resilient eggs in the country, which support our customers in achieving a maximum return on their investment in our products.
We will shortly publish the results of an identical study on LOHMANN BROWN-LITE, which is proving to show the same trend as LSL.