Protein and Sulfur Amino Acid Requirement of the Laying Hen as Influenced by Dietary Formulation

Abstract

THE National Research Council (1966) suggests that laying hens require 15 percent protein in a diet containing 2,850 kilocalories of metabolizable energy per kilogram. They have also suggested that the diet should contain 0.28 percent methionine and 0.25 percent cystine. In the past the protein requirement of the laying hen has been reported to be as high as 17 percent and as low as 11 percent. A review of the literature concerning protein requirement of the laying hen was made by Harms et al. (1962) in a paper in which it was reported that the energy content of the diet and season of the year would influence this requirement. In a later study (Harms et al., 1966), it was found that each decrease of 22 kilocalories of productive energy per kilogram of feed resulted in a one percent increase in the amount of feed consumed per hen per day. This…