Nourishing poultry – Do it right from the start

In challenging times like these with all the fast changing circumstances, no matter, if we talk about climate, pandemics, digitalization, market changes, etc. it becomes more and more important to give young creatures a right start to life to enable them to fulfil their potential. This statement counts for all living beings and is especially true for poultry. Chicks usually face a quite harsh and stressful early period of life after leaving the egg with sorting, sexing, vaccinating and sometimes very long transports until they arrive at the barns, where they can finally settle down. Therefore we propose two key actions to all our partners and clients: Nourish your birds as early as possible & nourish them right!

As you all know poultry has an internal nutrient storage inside their body, the yolk sac. This storage enables the young birds to cope with the early stressors, but it is not recommended to rely too much on that. If the nutrients of the yolk sac are burned to maintain life, because the birds are starving, the valuable nutrients are used ineffectively. Furthermore these nutrients are missed for their original purposes in the immune system for example.

So how can this issue be solved? Nurse them as soon as possible. And how to applicate the nutrients best? With a dedicated feed in the barn. Early feed intake has several lasting benefits for young  birds, like appropriate usage and quick retention of the yolk sac, a faster development of the GIT and microflora, a proper supply of nutrients to develop organs, skeleton, plumage, skin, maintenance etc.

This enables the birds to reach their genetic potential in terms of growth, production and of course return on invest for you. Does an adequate early nutrition prevent all problems, which can occur during their lifetime? No, but it reduces the risk for problems significantly and raises the chance to fulfil their potential

Keeping this in mind it is evident that a strategy to maintain egg quality, both internally as externally, built on improving calcium or protein absorption as the hen ages will not guarantee to be successful. Therefore specialists of Agrimprove developed a totally different strategy in line with the ongoing genetical improvements. This means that given the shorter intervals between ovulations and ovipositions (as performance improves year by year) facilitating and improving the process of shell calcification results in the best possible improvements.

We believe that a feed or feed concept, no matter how simple or distinguished, only works, if used at the right time on demand. So therefore you really need to figure out upfront what the demand of your flock is! Looking back to the just arrived DOC’s in your barn, they primarily need high digestible nutrients, especially amino acids, as they are the most crucial components for the building and growth of organs, skin, feathers, muscles, enzymes, you name it. Combined with the right nutrient set-up is of course the right form to supply the feed. The best feed is of no value, if it is not taken up by the birds.

In addition to the above mentioned points, it is of course also very important to consider regional conditions like climate, used breeds, common production systems, management level, client requirements, etc. For this reason we decided to create an flexible “umbrella”-concept called GalliFirst to combine the necessities of the early and proper nutrition with the regional challenges. This means, that we have minimum viable requirements in the frameworks of the feed formulations, but are adaptive on the composition, form, application and duration of GalliFirst-feeds in different regions. This allows us to give every flock the best possible start, no matter where it is located.
Furthermore, we are recognizing, of course, that a specialized feed for the early stages should not lead to a dip in feed intake after the switch to the usual diets, which is why we also offer to have a look on the later feeds to implement our feed in the whole feeding concept.

We are always happy to share and combine our knowledge with you to create value right from the start.