Gert Zoer, commercial layer farmer in the Netherlands, already has his 3rd flock of NOVOgen White on his farm. On two locations Gert houses more than 170.000 NOVOgen White layers in colony cages. He is the 3rd generation in this business. His grandfather used to produce and sell cage systems and his father Wim is running a rearing farm for 90,000 pullets in colony cages.
The oldest NOVOgen White flock of 86 weeks of age still produces at 82% and has stayed 55 weeks above 90%. The cumulative egg number is 412 eggs per hen housed with a cumulative egg mass of 25.8 kg and a FCR of 1.99. The liveability is also very good with 96% at this age.
These excellent results are totally in line with the business philosophy of the farmer. “The eggs are produced for the industry. A high egg mass with a low feed intake make our profit”, says Gert Zoer. “The pullets are reared by ourselves, so we can focus on good quality. Good compound feed in combination with a slow stepdown lighting program stimulates the carcass development of the birds. The fact that this reduces the onset of lay a little bit is to so important. The first small eggs do not bring us much, a good persistency with heavier eggs counts much more. The youngest NOVOgen White flock is now 56 weeks old and had at 50 weeks an egg weight of 64 gram”.
The flocks are now easily kept till 100 weeks of age. ”Every generation I can see the improvement in persistency and egg quality. I see this myself when looking at the low number of broken eggs in the egg packer at 85 weeks.” Mr. Zoer sees his own added value in the challenge towards the future: to connect all parts of the production chain to be able to keep the layers as long as possible in production!
