The Effects of Lowering Dietary Protein Level of Laying Hens During the Production Period

ECONOMICS has increased the interest in feeding laying hens lower protein rations. Harms and Waldroup (1962) reported that 13 percent protein rations needed supplementation with the amino acids, methionine and lysine. Although low protein rations were supplemented with amino acids the results were not always as good as those from higher protein rations. There is a belief among investigators that young pullets require higher protein rations for continued growth, egg production and maintenance. Quisenberry (1961) demonstrated that pullets started on 18 percent protein ration, and lowered to 17 percent after two months, 16 percent after 2 more months and 14 percent after two months then continued on 14 percent for 6 months, produced as well as birds receiving an 18 percent ration throughout the experiment. This experiment was designed to observe the effect of decreasing the dietary protein level immediately after 16 weeks production.