Effects of Soft Phosphate and Dicalcium Phosphate on Reproductive Performance and Egg Quality

Abstract

COMPARISONS of the relative value of phosphorus from soft phosphate with colloidal clay with that from other phosphorus supplements have been largely carried out with chicks (Gillis et al., 1948, 1954; Grau and Zweigart, 1953; Johnson et al., 1953; and Motzok et al., 1956). Using growth and/or “percent bone ash” as a measure of the relative availability of this element, the above workers concluded that the phosphorus in soft phosphate was less available than that in bone meal or in mono-, di-, and tri-calcium phosphate. Pepper et al. (1958) were unable to show any differences in rate of egg production, shell weight, or interior egg quality when an all-vegetable protein diet was supplemented with either 0.1 percent phosphorus from soft phosphate or dicalcium phosphate. The work reported in this paper was undertaken to study the utilization of soft phosphate by laying hens, especially during periods of high environmental temperature. EXPERIMENTAL