Abstract

Livestock production systems have faced social pressures related to animal welfare; the laying hen industry also has faced changes in governing regulations/policies. This study employs experimental data to evaluate 3 confinement-housing systems: standard cages with no perches, cages with standard perches, and cages with cooled perches. Based on the cost-benefit analysis conducted of revenue less feed costs, operators are expected to have revenue, after covering feed costs, which could contribute to installation and maintenance of standard and/or cooled perches. Thus, egg producers may be able to use caged housing that incorporates perches profitably, depending on the final costs of such a system.

Comments

This is the publisher PDF of Bir, C, et al. (2018) "'Cracking' into the debate about laying hen housing." Poultry Science, 97(5): 1595-1604. Published CC-BY-NC-ND by Elsevier, the version of record and ADA Title II compliant version is available in HTML at DOI: 10.3382/ps/pey017.

Keywords

laying hen housing; cost-benefit; thermally cooled perches

Date of this Version

12-11-2019

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