Sunflower Seed in Laying Hen Rations

Abstract

Unprocessed whole sunflower seed was evaluated as a partial replacement for soybean meal (SBM) and yellow corn in rations for Single Comb White Leghorn hens. Two experiments were conducted in floor pens using four pens of 25 birds per pen in the first experiment and 32 in the second per treatment. The criteria studied in both experiments were egg production, egg weight, feed consumption, feed conversion, and body weight change. In addition, Experiment 2 included various egg quality studies. In Experiment 1, 10, 20, and 30% of sunflower seed replaced 15, 30, and 45 % of the SBM and 9.5, 19, and 28.6% of the corn in the ration. Results of Experiment 1 showed that none of these treatments had any adverse effect on hen performance. Experiment 2 was conducted to investigate if the highest level of sunflower used, supplemented with .1% lysine or with .1% lysine plus .01% methionine, improved hen performance and egg quality. Results of Experiment 2 showed that lysine or lysine plus methionine supplementation did not improve hen performance. Rations containing sunflower meal gave a significantly lower yolk color score and a significant rise in yolk cholesterol content (P<.01).