What’s in and What’s Out in a Laying Hen’s Diet

We all are familiar with the soya bean as a concentrated protein source appearing in many of our food products, and for many years now soy has been widely used for exactly this reason in poultry feed. However, increasingly, this animal feed product is under scrutiny.

Global production of soy has doubled in 20 years increasing devastating deforestation and leading to the loss of endangered species, local jobs and adverse climate change. Moreover, many EU countries are dependent on imports to fulfil their feed requirements raising the issue of long-distance transportation and leaving them vulnerable to increasing costs which impact profit.

As a result, interest has grown in alternatives which provide a similar protein source without the negative consequences. Sunflower and rapeseed make good soy replacements, but these have lower protein digestibility leading to lower egg production and higher risk of intestinal health problems.

Another source of protein explored over the past few years is that of insects. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are high in nutritional value but contain chitin which restricts digestibility, which also, in turn, impacts productivity, so work is taking place to find the pivotal point that allows birds to maintain performance whilst enjoying a more sustainable feed source. Interestingly BSFL also gives a darker yolk colouring too, so watch out for darker yolks!

As we reported in our Fresh Laid News, Morrisons, is keen to become the first UK supermarket to achieve the accolade of carbon neutral eggs on shelves this year. Morrisons claims that by switching to feeding BSFL it will save 56 hectares of land from deforestation in South America and is trialling insect feeding on 10 farms, each having 32,000 free-range hens.

Morrisons will deliver three tonnes of waste fruit and veg weekly to feed these ‘insect units’, helping the insects to grow to 5,000 times their initial body mass in a fortnight and feeding a total of 320,000 hens who will lay around a million eggs in a year.

It seems this circular agriculture is set to grow and Morrisons have already started feeding seaweed into cows’ diets to reduce the production of methane.

One wonders how long it will be before we are also eating insects … just a thought?!