Hen Housing Systems: Page 20

Hen Housing Systems

Sustainability of layer housing systems examined

Scientific papers detailing initialresults of a study on the sustainability of commercial egg production systems arebeing published in Poultry Science.

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Proposition 2 and acquisitions shuffle US egg producer rankings

Egg Industry’s Top Egg Company survey reflectsthe results of an eventful 2014 for U.S. egg producers. The two largest eggproducers remained the same in this year’s survey with Cal-Maine Foods and RoseAcre Farms holding down the first and second positions with 34.2 and 24.8million hens, respectively. Rembrandt Enterprises rose from the fifth positionin 2013 survey to the third position in 2014, adding 1.1 million hens toincrease the company’s flock to 14.5 million head of hens on December 31. Moark LLCsold two of its three divisions in 2014 and fell from the third spot in thesurvey to fifteenth position having 6.5 million hens at year’s end in itsremaining Northeastern operations. Daybreak Foods remained in the fourth position in the rankings with 13.5million hens. Trillium Farm Holdings increased by 2.3 million hens in 2014 tomove to the fifth spot in the rankings with 11.4 million hens.

Table 1: The top 5 U.S. egg producers now house about one-third of the total U.S. table egg layer flock.

Hen Housing Systems

NCSU kicks off fundraising drive for new layer research facility

Eggproducers around the globe may be seeing more research conducted on layershoused in modern aviary systems beginning as early as 2016 if the fundraisingdrive kicked off by North Carolina State University at the InternationalProduction and Processing Expo is successful, reported Dr. Kenneth Anderson,professor of poultry science and director of the North Carolina LayerPerformance and Management Program.

Alternative layer housing, feed additives highlight PSA meeting

Many exciting and innovative laying hen-, pullet- and egg industry-related studies were presented at the 2014 Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas.

CSES egg layer housing research answers and raises questions

The initialfindings report for the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply was releasedrecently and it presents preliminary results for some of the measurements takenfrom the two flock study. The research tracts animal well-being, environmental,food safety, worker safety and affordability measurements for eggs produced fromhens housed in conventional cages, enriched colonies and aviaries on acommercial farm. This three year project will provide a comparison of thesethree housing alternatives for hens in these five areas of sustainability usingthe best available science to measure indicators such as ammonia concentrationin the house, feather condition, egg production and a myriad of others.

Hen Housing Systems

Layer housing study preliminary results released

The Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply releasedpreliminary results from a research project looking at various laying henhousing options.

Hen Housing Systems

Big Dutchman restructures sales management team for egg systems in US, Canada

Big Dutchman Inc. has restructured the sales and management team for the egg systems division to provide a higher level of service and support for customers in the U.S. and Canadian territories. With the continued growth in enrichable and enriched layer house systems and cage-free aviary systems, Big Dutchman USA is moving forward by promoting Terry Pollard to the position of senior vice president, egg systems, U.S. and Canada.

Can the egg industry learn from pork processors?

The US layer and swine industries have developed quite differently, but they have some common challenges. Modern confinement housing systems have generally improved animal health and productivity over the free-range systems employed in the past.

Cost of producing eggs sets new record highs around the globe

"Over the last twelve months, the cost of producing eggs has reached all-time record high levels across the globe due to high grain costs, new housing systems in Europe and regulations or legislation in many countries," said Peter van Horne, economist, Wageningen University and the International Egg Commission (IEC). Data presented by van Horne at the IEC conference in Cape Town, South Africa, was derived from Wageningen University research, company information collected by Iowa State's Egg Industry Center and data collected by the IEC.

Adding cage-free production was good for business

Midwest Poultry Services has added capacity to house 500,000 cage-free hens over the last five years to meet existing customers’ needs. Bob Krouse, president, Midwest Poultry Services, and former United Egg Producers chairman, said that the company had existing supermarket accounts who wanted to be able to offer their retail customers eggs from cage-free hens and that they preferred to get these eggs from their regular supplier.

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Hen Housing Systems

Research finds no quality differences in eggs from aviaries, enriched or conventional cages

Preliminary analysis of the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply first flock research results were presented recently at the group’s annual meeting in Minneapolis. The quality of the eggs was assessed shortly after they were laid using multiple parameters, which were found not to be impacted by hen housing system.

New hen housing options keep layer performance test relevant

New range houses have been built and workers are preparing to run utilities and install fences for the range pens at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Piedmont Research Station located just outside Salisbury, N.C. The Piedmont Research Station has been home to the North Carolina Layer Performance and Management Test, an ongoing project which allows primary breeders to submit their strains for comparison with other breeds in a variety of housing environments, since 1958.

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