IPPE: Why egg size, shell quality and laying rate shift in older flocks

16 February 2026

2 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

North America

Dr. Jose Charal, director of poultry technical sales at ADM Animal Nutrition, was recently interviewed by The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell at the 2026 International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Jose, you presented at the TechTalk today and shared some new information with the group. 

The focus of the talk was the main challenges that producers actually face when their flocks age. When we talk about these specific flocks, we are referring to layers and breeders specifically. The first part of the talk focused on understanding where breeders and layers may have common physiological response as they age. Typically, what we normally see when layers and breeder layers age is they normally drop egg rates, meaning they produce less eggs on a per day basis. 

There are several reasons for this - typically there is less development of follicles in the ovarium, and most of the time that results in those eggs being larger. With eggs being larger, we typically see some issues with the quality of those eggs, meaning likely weaker shells. Some of these issues typically are addressed by management and also by nutrition. But there is limited information on how endocrinology may impact the development of the egg cycle at those ages.

We identified that as layers age, there are less eggs and the eggs are bigger, so the layers and breeders actually have a difficult time trying to produce enough fatty acids and mobilize the fatty acids from the liver into the egg yolk production. In that circumstance, what we identify is that there are some technologies such as the extract of a Ferula plant that actually increases the sensitivity of the receptors to estradiol, for example. Those specific hormones play an important role in effectively improving the laying rate as well as the mobilization of nutrients from the liver up to the egg yolk production site as well as the eggshell membrane production. 

In these circumstances, the overall effect is that those layers are going to improve their laying rate as well as the quality of the eggs is going to increase. That's of course important for the egg producers because they are going to be able to commercialize more eggs. In the case of the breeders, typically there is an association of better quality eggs with better fertility and hatchability of eggs. 

It this a path to improved efficiency? 

Yes, the main objective of the farmers is to be more productive and to get their output as optimal as possible from their systems. These technologies will help them. One, it is to produce more eggs to be commercialized. Also, the opportunity in the case of the breeders is to likely produce more chicks out of the flow. 

It is important at the end of the day, as those layers get older, they produce less eggs and they produce bigger eggs. More calcium is required to be mobilized from the reservoir and also from the diet in order to produce enough shells to cover those eggs, and that's how it is for the shell quality impact as well.