The Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply (CSES), nearing completion of a two-flock research study to better understand the sustainability impacts of various types of laying hen housing including cage-free aviary, enriched cage and conventional cage systems has released preliminary research results. Over the course of three years and two separate flocks, CSES noted that the research assessed five areas of sustainability: (1) animal health and well-being, (2) environmental impact, (3) food affordability, (4) food safety and (5) worker health and safety. A complete overview of the preliminary results is available at www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org.
Egg farmers understand the importance of these statistics of mortality, hen-day and hen-housed egg production, case weight and feed conversion, but when operating costs and capital costs are factored in, today’s modern conventional cage system is providing an affordable table egg that in addition provides a humane, lower environmental impact, safe and wholesome production system. Again science continues to exonerate conventional cages for producing eggs.
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1. Hen production performance (19-78 weeks), first flock summary |
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Production parameter |
Conv. |
Enriched |
Aviary |
Ref.* |
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Cumulative mortality, % |
4.7 |
5.1 |
11.6 |
6.8 |
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Avg. hen-day egg production, % |
85.9 |
89.0 |
88.1 |
88.2 |
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Eggs per hen housed |
352 |
363 |
340 |
360 |
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Case weight, lb./case |
46.4 |
46.9 |
46.3 |
48.6 |
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Feed/cwt., lb./100 bd-day |
22.8 |
23.6 |
23.3 |
22.4 |
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Water/feed, lb./lb. |
2.07 |
1.73 |
1.64 |
— |
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Feed conversion, lb./doz. eggs |
3.18 |
3.13 |
3.28 |
3.14 |
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Feed conversion, lb. feed/lb. eggs |
2.02 |
1.99 |
2.12 |
1.94 |
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Bodyweight at week 78, lb. |
3.44 |
3.42 |
3.37 |
3.71 |
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*Lohmann white reference value. |
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2. Operating and capital costs per dozen eggs, $ |
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Conv. |
Aviary |
Enriched |
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Feed costs |
0.395 |
0.408 |
0.394 |
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Production labor costs |
0.017 |
0.057 |
0.047 |
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Pullet cost |
0.146 |
0.196 |
0.147 |
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Capital cost* (capital outlay x 10% return) |
0.042 |
0.138 |
0.104 |
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Sum of major cost components |
0.600 |
0.799 |
0.692 |
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*Preliminary data. |
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Source for Tables: Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply. |
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