This document provides information on grower and layer management for poultry farms. It discusses the importance of restricted feeding during the growing period to prevent early sexual maturity and improve egg production. It outlines the vaccination schedule and production indices like hen-day egg production, hen-housed egg production, egg mass, and feed conversion ratio that are followed to monitor performance. Proper cleaning, feeding, lighting and vaccination programs are essential for optimal grower and layer management.

1. GROWER & LAYER MANAGEMENT
PREPARED BY :-
Dr. Rajesh Dangi
Veterinary Officer
Venky’s{INDIA}LTD.

2. Learning objectives:-
•To know about the grower management.
•Significance of restricted feeding during growing period.
•Layer management.
•Vaccination schedule adopted during growing and laying period.
•Several production indices followed for predicting egg production
performance in layer farms.

3. GROWER MANAGEMENT
•Proper cleaning and disinfection of grower house is needed before introduction
of grower birds.
•Provide sufficient floor space, feeding space and water space.
•Spread litter material to a height of 4” in case of deep-litter system.
•Arrange feeder and waterers in the grower house.
•Change the feeder and waterer according to the need.
•Adopt restricted feeding programme during growing period to prevent fattening
of pullets and early sexual maturity and thus to improve egg production.
•Follow good litter management to avoid diseases like coccidiosis.
•Lighting programme should be follow as per breeder suggestions.
•Aim for the uniformity of the flock. Sample weights are taken once in a week to
find out the average body weight as per the breeder suggestions.
•Follow strictly the recommended vaccination, medication and other
management programs like deworming, debeaking etc for the growers.

4. RESTRICTED FEEDING
•It is adopted during growing period of layers or breeders.
•There are two types of restricted feeding.
Quantitative feed restriction:-
•In which the amount of feed is reduced below the normal requirement of birds.
•This can be done on day-to-day basis or skip-a-day programme or skip-two
days in a week programme.
•But this restriction depends on the matching of the flock average body weight
with standard body weight provided by the breeder.
•Quantitative feed restriction is usually followed in commercial breeders.

5. Qualitative feed restriction:-
•In which the quality of the feed is reduced below the standard requirement of
the bird.
•This can be done by including unconventional feeds or lesser nutrient feed
ingredients in place of high protein or high energy diet.
•Here the quantity of allotment to the bird is not restricted.
•During restricted feeding programme, provide more number of feeders and see
that all the birds are taking feed simultaneously or otherwise dominant birds will
take more amount of feed and the weaker will be subjected to feed deprivation
and hence the uniformity will be affected.

6. ADVANTAGES
•A considerable saving on feed cost because, only 80 % of the calculated feed requirement will be
offered.
•They are likely to consume less feed per dozen eggs even during laying period when they are
offered ad libitum feed.
•The pullets accumulate less fat and therefore produce more eggs.
•It is easier to identify weaker birds at an early age during feed restriction.
•Culling of such birds helps not only saving feed but also promoting layer house survivability
because, healthier birds will be moving to laying house.
•Layers feed-restricted during growing period have been found to produce heavier eggs in longer
clutches than those fed ad libitum.

7. UNIFORMITY
•At a given age, growing pullets should have average body weight very
close to breeder recommendations at least 75-80% of the flock size.
•Points to be considered for getting uniformity among growing pullets
are,
• Receive chicks of uniform weight.
• Provide proper feeding, watering and floor space.
• Change the feeder and waterer according to the age.
• The height of the feeder and waterer should be at the back height of the
bird.
• Provide proper energy in the diet.
• Sample weights of the pullets are taken at regular intervals and change
the feed accordingly.
• Provide proper feeding space, so as to all birds consume feed
simultaneously.

8. LAYER MANAGEMENT
Points to be considered during layer management are:-
•Proper cleaning and disinfection of layer house.
•Provide proper floor space, feeding space and watering space both in deep-litter and cage system.
•In deep-litter system, floor space of 2 sq.ft. per bird and feeding space of 5” per bird are provided.
•In cage system 5 birds/box of 21” x 15” cage floor space is provided (0.63 sq. in. per bird)

9. •Provide 16 hours light during laying period.
•Provide well-balanced layer feed may be followed for layers according
to age, level of production and climatic factors.
•The average feed consumption during laying period ranges from 100-
110 gram.
•Feed consumption during winter increases and during summer, feed
consumption decreases.
•Summer and winter management should be followed for better flock
percentages.
•Deworming should be done regularly at an interval of 8-12 weeks
depending on the worm load, especially when reared under deep-litter
system.
•Collect the eggs at least twice a day in cage system.
•Cull the unproductive layers regularly.

10. VACCINATION SCHEDULE FOR LAYERS RECOMMENDED BY VENKY’S
Sr.No Age Vaccination Dose Route
1 Done at hatchery level MD Cell associated ( HVT+SBI ) Double dose
& IB ( H 120 ) done at hatchery
0.2 ml/bird S/C
eye/drop
2 Day 2 MD Cell associated ( HVT+SBI ) 0.2 ml/bird S/C
3 Day 5 ND + IBD killed 0.3ml/bird S/C
4 Day 5 LaSota + Avi flora with Lasota diluent Single Oral drop
5 Day 7 IBD STD Eye drop/DW
6 Day 9-10 Beak treatment
7 Day 14 IBD intermediate plus Single Eye drop/DW
8 Day 15,16,17 Ventrimisole @ 5 gms / 1000 birds/day. D/W
9 Day 18 VH BRO MN killed 0.3ml/bird S/C
10 Day 21 IB Live Mass D/W
11 Day 24-26 IBD intermediate standard single D/W
12 Day 30 CAV Killed 0.5ml I/M
13 Day 35 VH –Cor4 (Infectious Coryza Killed) 0.5ml/bird S/C
14 Day 35-40 LaSota single D/W
15 Day 42 ND Killed VISA-15 0.5ml/bird I/M
16 Day 45 Fowl Pox 0.2 ml/bird I/M
17 Day 49 VH-FIC-7 (Fowl Cholera Killed) 0.5ml/bird S/C
18 Day 65 VH-Cor4 (Infectious Coryza Killed) 0.5ml/bird I/M
19 Day 70 R2B 0.5ml/bird I/M
20 Day 75 VH –FIC-7 (Fowl Cholera Killed) 0.5ml/bird I/M
21 Day 80 IB Live Mass D/W
22 Day 85 Fowl Pox 0.2 ml/bird I/M
23 Day 95 Beak conditioning (if not done earlier) 0.5ml I/M
24 Day 112 ND Visa Killed 0.5ml/bird I/M
25 Day 120 VH BRO MN killed 0.5ml I/M
26 35 -40 week VH NEW BRO MN Killed 0.5ml I/M
27 60 Week VH NEW BRO MN killed 0.5ml/bird I/M

11. LAYER PRODUCTION INDICES
Egg production
•The egg industry has two principal methods of measuring daily, weekly, and
total egg production i.e. the hen-day and hen-housed systems.
Hen-Day Egg Production (HDEP)
For a particular day

12. Hen-Housed Egg Production (HHEP)
For a particular day
• It is usually expressed in numbers. HHEP values of 80% or 330 or higher are desirable.
•Although HDEP is an excellent indicator of how well the live birds are laying, it does not consider
egg size and egg quality.
•Since these factors help in determining the income from eggs, HDEP is often misleading from a
profit standpoint.
•From a cost of egg production standpoint, HHEP is good as it measures the effects of both egg
production and mortality.
•If there is no mortality during a period, the HDEP and HHEP are equal.

13. EGG MASS
•The use of egg mass rather than egg numbers will lead to better
comparisons of flocks or strains of birds.
•To calculate egg mass it is first necessary to determine the average
weight of eggs by weighing representative samples of the eggs
produced.
Average egg mass = Per cent HDEP X Average egg weight in
grams /100
(Per hen per day in grams)

14. FEED EFFICIENCY
Feed efficiency (Feed conversion ratio – FCR)
•Feed efficiency per kg egg mass
• This takes into consideration of the feed intake, egg weight and egg
production. It is the ratio between the feed consumed and the egg mass.
FCR = Kg of feed consumed / Kg of egg produced
(per kg egg mass)
• A value of 2.2 or less is advantageous to the farm.
•Feed efficiency per dozen eggs
• This takes into consideration of the feed intake and egg production. It is
the ratio between the feed consumed and the number of eggs produced.
FCR = (Kg of feed consumed x 12) / Total eggs
produced
(per dozen eggs)
• A value of 1.5 or less is advantageous to the farm.

15. LAYING FEEDING PHASE
BREED BV 300 BOVAN’S HYLINE LOHMAN
AGE {WKS} 19-34 35-49 50-64 65-80 19-30 31-60 61-100 19-25 26-
35
36-75 76-
100
19-35 36-75 76-100
PHASE P1 P2 P3 P4 P1 P2 P3 P1 P2 P3 P4 L1 L2 L3
Metabolizable
Energy{Kcal/kg}
2600 2550 2550 2450 2550-
2600
2550-
2600
2500-
2550
2600-
2800
2600
-
2800
2600-
2800
2600-
2800
2600 2500 2450
Crude Protein % 14.5-
17
14-
16.5
14-
16.25
13.5-
16
17-
17.5
16-16.5 15.5 15-18 14.5-
17.8
14.09
-17.5
13.8-
16.9
17.5 16 16

16. THANK YOU