Feeding and nutrition of breeding geese (gosling breeders and laying hens) Flashcards
What is unique to geese
They have the lowest repro performance of the Po species
Breeding cycle- what are the 2 types
Traditional: 4 mnth laying period outside (plucking)
Artificial: Inside and not plucked
Differesnt types of egg prod in artificial and when is the onset
Advanced egg prod: onset in Nov
Summer egg prod: onset in June
Autumn egg prod: onset in Sept
Breeding cycle timeline: when is the fore-rearing and post rearing
Fore-rearing: beings in april and lasts until 4 wks
Post-rearing: 5-8 wks mainly, also until 31 wks and that’s when the birds are housed
Rearing- the timeline and when the plucking takes place
Begins in april and up to 4 wks is fore-rearing
10 wks: may- 1st plucking
16 wks: july- 2nd plucking
22 wks: Sept- 3rd plucking
31 wks: Housing
42 wks: egg prod
3 periods of rearing
rearing takes 42 weeks in total and must be done prior to egg prod
- 0-4 wks fore-rearing and 5-8 wks post rearing
- 9-31 wks: feeding gosling breeders until they are housed
- 32-42 wks: feeding in housing until egg prod
Rearing methods (3)
- Semi-intensive- the one discussed prev and is the cheapest
- Intensive: always inside, artificial
- Mixture of intensive and semi-intensive: Intensive in winter until wk 8, after that semi-intensive on pasture/lake
3 important points about feeding
Restricted until wk 8
3kg less conc compared to roasting geese
More forages- because they don’t need to grow as fast as roasting geese
Feeding timelines (5)
- Wk 1: starter diet
- Wk 2-8: Starter diet and green forages/pasture
- Wk 9-31: developer diet! grains and green forages/pastures
- Wk 32-38: prelayer diet ad lib
- Wk 39-42: Layer diet ad lib
Timeline of layers
At end of Jan at wk 42 they have a 4 mnth laying period- brings them to the beginning of June– then they are kept on pasture until November when they are housed
Layer diet and egg prod
Diet: 260-280g/day and consists of Grits and wheat straw
Produce 25-50 eggs weighing around 160g
Developer (rearer) vs layer diet
CP%: 14 vs 16
ME (MJ/kg) 11 vs 11.5