Commenting on the new feed percentage regulations Martin Humphrey, Director of Humphrey Feeds, said, “The challenge with this change to organic formulations has been to ensure that the essential amino acids, particularly lysine and methionine, are of the correct quantity and ratio, and are of a quality to meet the nutrient and welfare requirements of the bird.

“For the unwary, the change to 95 per cent organic can unbalance the diet, leading to an oversupply of non-limiting or non-essential amino acids which can cause hock burn, pododermatitis and certain behavioural abnormalities. We have used all our experience of making organic poultry diets to select raw materials to avoid these issues, and ensure the continuity of expected nutritional and performance standards without compromise.

Humphrey Feeds' range of 66 organic poultry diets include core diets, as well as a wide range of specialist ‘management diets’ that aim to adjust certain issues, including eggs that are too large or too small, birds that grow too fast, too slow, have poor appetites or are recovering from disease. Diets are also formulated for the time of year, reflecting the different seasonal challenges.

“We strongly believe that fishmeal is an essential ingredient in 95 per cent diets, so we have dropped the eight formulations that do not contain fishmeal from our range as those diets have become unbalanced and nutritionally inadequate. Currently the performance of our organic customers’ flocks matches that of our conventional free-range customers, and this should continue to be the case with our new range of 95 per cent diets,” concluded Mr Humphrey.

Humphrey Feeds has published a new organic information sheet explaining the nutritional consequences and changes following the move to 95 per cent organic diets.

To order a copy of this organic information sheet, you can e-mail [email protected].