OPTIMAL LAYING PERIOD FOR PROFITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE EGG PRODUCTION

Abstract

Profitability and sustainability of investment in a business calls for determining the optimum period of production to maximize profit. This study attempts to determine the optimum age of laying birds in egg production. Taking the Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area in Ogun State as a case study, thirty-nine (39) poultry (chicken) farmers were surveyed over a period of 12 weeks to obtain necessary data. Budgetary and regression analyses were conducted. The budgetary analysis revealed feed as a major cost item in egg production, constituting about 68 percent of the total cost of production. The result of the regression analysis for the determination of the optimum age of birds in lay suggests 43 weeks of lay as optimum period and 46 weeks of lay as maximum period for profit maximization. It was, therefore, recommended that for the farmers to sustain their investment in chicken egg production through optimum yield approach, they should cull their birds between 10 and 11 months of lay. Keeping birds beyond this period will result in reduction in profit, which will threaten the sustenance of the investment.