Evaluation of the technical and economic impacts of high-density broiler production in an integrated system

Abstract

This study included 35 farmers contracted by a broiler integrator company. Each farmer owned an average of seven poultry houses, housing six flocks per year per farmer, summing up 4.0 million broilers housed. Live performance was evaluated in flocks housed in three densities (D114 birds/m2), and included the following parameters: market age (MA), average flock weight (AFW), average daily gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), livability (LB), production efficiency index (PEI) and carcass yield/m2 (CY). Production costs and gross margin were calculated with birds housed at two densities (11.5<D4<12.4 and 14.5<D5<15.5birds/m2), standardizing MA to 44 days. The economic evaluation included 15 farmers and 1.0 million broilers housed. The average densities obtained for D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5 were 11.80, 13.15, 15.00, 12.02, and 14.98 birds/m2, respectively. Density effect was significant on most parameters, with D1 producing the best results in AFW, DWG, FCR, LB, and PEI, whereas D2 and D3 produced different results only in FCR. Despite the reduction in animal performance, carcass yield/m2 linearly increased with density. The economic analyses showed higher production costs, despite the higher margin for D5. The greatest impact was the reduction in farmer's compensation (19.68%) per bird housed. From the farmer's perspective, the 5% increase in compensation should be enough to cover the investment required to supply the requirements of higher densities.

Keywords

• Broilers
• density
• economic indices
• integration
• performance parameters