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 that allows primary breeders to submit their strains for comparison with other breeds in a variety of housing environments, since 1958.
Dr. Kenneth Anderson, poultry science professor, North Carolina State University, became project leader for the test in 1990. He said that the layer performance test is unique not just for its longevity, but because it records performance data for brown and white egg layers of just about every commercial strain in housing options that are of interest to today’s poultry industry. The 38th test, whose final report was issued in April of 2012, offered breeders the option of testing their strains in conventional cages, cage-free (floor pens) and free-range (range houses with attached fenced pens). For the 39th test, for which eggs were set in July of 2013, enriched and enrichable cages have been added to the housing options.
Conducting the test
From the time the eggs arrive at the Piedmont Research Station, they are all handled the same. The eggs are incubated and hatched together and are all placed at the same time. The primary breeders decide which strains to submit for the test and which environments to test them in. Anderson said that the breeders make a contribution to the project in addition to donating the eggs.
All of the environments have been modified to keep up with the latest industry housing options. The conventional cages are belt-battery cages, new floor pens were constructed, and the range houses and pens will be new for the 39th test as well. Anderson said that the conventional, enriched and enrichable study group hens will be raised as pullets in cage systems, while the study birds that will lay in floor pens and on range will be brooded on the floor. Half of the floor pens will have roosts installed at one-day-of-age to see if this has an impact on subsequent nest use when the birds are in lay.
Housing density
The effect of housing density on the cage housed birds will also be studied. Hens in enriched cages will be housed at either 69 or 139 square inches per bird, 36 or 18 hens per cage, respectively. Layers in conventional cages will be housed at either 69 or 120 square inches per bird, seven or four hens per cage, respectively. Hens in the floor pens are given 1.3 square feet per bird, and free-range birds are allocated 1.3 square feet per bird in the range house and 60 square feet per bird in the range pens. The range pens are divided into two halves, and the birds are rotated between the two pens every four weeks to maintain the vegetative ground cover. Each floor pen or free-range pen houses 60 hens.
In addition to all of the bird performance data gathered, like feed intake, mortality, egg quality and rate of lay, things like work hours required for bird care are also tracked. For the 39th test, Anderson said that another research group will be collaborating to track nutrient runoff from the range pens.
Planning for the future
In addition to contributions from primary breeders, the layer test requires funding from other sources to test birds in current and potential future housing environments. Anderson said that revenue from egg sales pays for most of the feed cost of running the test and that the state of North Carolina provides support to pay personnel costs, but that funds for capital improvements have to come from other sources. A new building, which would house aviaries, both with and without access to outdoor pens, is on the drawing board. Anderson said that the aviary project will cost approximately $600,000, and the plan is to have the building ready for the 40th running of the layer test, which means breaking ground for the building needs to be by the summer of 2014.
