2120 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

APPENDIX 2: THIRD COUNTRIESThe decision as to whether to molt and, if so, whether to molt once or twice, is an economicdecision. It is driven by a combination of factors including the price of eggs, the price of pullets, thequality or grade of eggs produced, and the price of feed. The number of ‘grow-houses’ required toprovide the needed number of ready-to-lay pullets is dependent of which production system is beingused. Under a no-molt program, it is generally assumed that one grow-house can supply three layhouses.With a two-cycle program, each grow-house can supply five lay-houses and under a threecycleprogram can supply seven lay-houses. Thus, to co-ordinate production so as to optimisereturns, it is necessary to plan several months, if not years, into the future.Comparisons of the performance of these systems under alternative conditions by Don Bell at theUniversity of California suggest that molting is most easily justified when egg prices are low and pulletprices are high. Since egg prices in the U.S. had been relatively low for an extended period prior tolast year, it is not surprising that around 85% of U.S. producers molt their flocks. We estimate thatonly about 15% of the flocks are unmolted while around 75% are molted once and 10% moltedtwice.With the high egg prices that were experienced in the U.S. earlier this year, some growers are reassessingtheir replacement programs and their decisions to molt. Genetic improvements that resultin improved persistency and the pressure of animal welfare interests for growers to discontinue thepractice of feed withdrawal are additional factors that point toward a future reduction in the use ofmolting in the U.S. At the same time, the uncertainty of future egg prices and the investmentrequired to build additional grow-out houses suggests that the reduction will probably be gradual.Free range/alternative system:Free range and organic egg production systems, as practised in the U.S. to date, have operated on afar smaller scale than the traditional, large-scale commercial operations. They are also far morediverse in how they are organised and operated. As the large, commercial firms gain prominence inthese markets, this will change, but for now, diversity rules. Since most operators of free range andorganic systems do everything – production, packaging, marketing, distribution, and sometimes retailsale – it is generally not possible to estimate the input requirements of production alone.For purposes of describing these systems, we have made extensive use of the technical advice ofresearchers at Pennsylvania State University. These systems differ from large-scale commercialsystems and/or among themselves in several ways. Free-range layers are commonly molted oncewhile organic hens are generally not molted. By their nature, both systems make more extensive useof space and substantially more extensive use of labour. As indicated below, this adds considerablyto their costs. Organically produced eggs require organic feed that is more expensive and lessaccessible. Finally, organic hens are commonly sold as roasters and are therefore of somewhatgreater value than other spent hens. As can be seen in Table A2.39 below, both of these systems aresomewhat less efficient than the commercial systems by most measures. As noted above, nearly allU.S. production is accounted for by the first three types, i.e. by the one-cycle, two-cycle, and threecycleapproaches.376