26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 14, 1964 Why Layers Need Calcium According to Werner J. Mueller, Penn State Univer ity. in the August issue of Poultiy Digest, 5 to 7 per cent c-f all eggs produced are brok en dining handling and mar keting The average egg shell con tains about two giams of cal uum Jf a hen pioduces 250 eggs per year she has a re ciiiiiement of about 500 grams cf calcium to put shells on ..11 of them. Since the total . alcuim in the hen’s body weighs only 25 grams, she must put 20 times more cal uim into shells than the en in e calcium content of her body In 1960 the National Re peal ch Council i ecommended laising the calcium content of laying i ations from 2 25 to 275 pei cent A numbei of icseaicheis weie not satisfied that even this amount was suf ficient Idaho woikeis, for example, recommended a cal cium level of 3 75 pei cent for tempeiatuies below 70 degiees, and 4 5 to 5 pei cent for tempeiatuies above 70 degiees Simply in ci easing the amount of calcium in the feed is not the whole answei The efficiency of calcium utiliza tion is not 100 per cent If the feed is low in calcium, the hen may utilize up to 80 per cent of it. Howevei, as the calcium content of the diet mu eases, the efficiency is re duced drastically and may go as low as 20 30 per cent A safe assumption is that about 50 per cent of the cal m THE ROYALTY OF POULTRY Order DEKALB PULLETS Day Old or Up To Twenty Weeks Old From DUTCHMAN MILLS, INC. R. D. 1, STEVENS, PA. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ Top Dress Your Alfalfa Now 0-14-14 0-20-20 0-15-30 Use Our Spreader Service ORGANIC PLANT FOOD CO. GROFFTOWN RD., NEXT TO WATERWORKS Ph. 392-4963 or 392-0374 cium is utilized. Therefore, if the bird needs two grams of calcium a day, it is neces sary to feed four grams. ‘ The next problem is feed consumption. If the bird con sumes 200 grams of feed a day she can get by with two per cent calcium. If her feed consumption drops to 100 grams a day, she must have a four per cent cal cium diet to get her needed four giams. So it can readily be seen that it is the amount of calcium that the hen con sumes that is important, not the percentage in the feed. The smaller the feed intake, the higher the per cent cal cium must be to take care of the hen’s daily needs. Enuionmental temperature is anothei complicating factor As the tempeiatuie is m ci eased fiom 55 to 90 degrees, feed consumption drops about one thud Theiefoie, assuming othei factois remain constant. the amount of calcium includ ed in the diet at '9O degrees must be one-third more than at 55 degrees. Two other factors that fur ther confuse this calcium pic ture are individual variations due to rate of production and egg size. The disadvantage of trying to include the maximum amount of calcium in the diet is that it upsets the balance of the other nutrients. For example, if the limestone be ing used contains 39 per cent calcium, and it is desired to provide a feed with five per cent calcium, 250 pounds of the calcium supplement would have to be added to each ton of feed. The simple solution to this complex problem is to feed calcium in the foim of oyster shells oi some other readily consumed foim This works well for flooi bads It becomes moie difficult when dealing with cage birds Muellei lecommends that if Bull & Tabor Chairmen Of Farm-City Week Two department heads in the state government—Leland H. Bull, Secretary of Agri culture, and John K, Tabor, Secretary of Commerce, will serve as honorary co-chairmen of Farm-City Week, Nov. 20- 26, according to Jack R. Grey, general chairman. Grey, deputy state Secretary of Agriculture, today said both honorary chairmen will be closely identified with this it is impossible to feed sup plemental calcium then it would be best to include 3-3.5 per cent in the mash when temperatures are below 70 de grees, and to increase the lev el to 3.54 per cent when tem peratures are above 70 de grees Care must be taken, he warns, to include all other nu tuents in adequate amounts to pi event a decline in egg production, egg size, or hatch ability. year’s observance, the them* for which is “Discover the Mew Pennsylvania through Farm? Ctiy Week.” Particular emphasis, he stated will be placed upoA the Commonwealth’s program lor promoting its economic growth, a project that, em braces all Pennsylvania*. . Secretary Bull, a former Pennsylvania chairman of Farm-City Week, has been 'ac tive in this effort for better rural-urban relations from the time the movement originated ten years ago. Appropriate activities are being planned in most Penn sylvania counties under the di rection of county chairmen, many of whom are the county agricultural agents. An international observance, Faim-City Week will be an occasion for encouraging better acquaintance and understand ing between farm people and city residents throughout the United States and Canada.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers