Feeding hens in a loose husbandry system - challenges and consequences on performance and welfare

Housing hens in loose husbandry systems such as barn, free-range, or organic systems is associated with many challenges that not only interfere with body weight uniformity, but also with adequate feed intake, as well as high inter-hen variation of nutrient and energy requirements. This brief review outlines recent findings about the characterisation of sub-populations within free-range flocks, and highlights their impact on flock performance and dietary considerations. Ongoing work with these subpopulations including determining of metabolic needs, clustering of various performance groups and hens of different health status within one flock may allow for distinct pattern recognition and targeted dietary management using different geographical locations within the hen house. Given the fact that subpopulations oflayer flocks in experimental and commercial free-range facilities are commonly observed, the use of modern technology including routine Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID ), location sensing and computed learning should be considered to improve current feeding strategies, allowing realtime flock management for a more economic, efficient and sustainable use of feed resources.