Analysis of energy consumption in poultry management for table egg production in Nigeria

Energy audit and mass flow studies of commercial agricultural systems are increasingly becoming of utmost importance, due to high operation costs and dependence on energy. This research was designed to study energy input, output and efficiency for daily table egg production from commercially managed poultry birds. Three commercially operated poultry farms in Ibadan, Nigeria were visited for assessment of management procedures, data collection, equipment observation and personnel interview. The energy required for each management procedure was calculated from standard methods. Each farm housed average of 25,000 actively laying birds and had average daily egg production of 21,250 egg pieces. This amounted to 1169 kg egg and 3000 kg faecal materials production per day from the average energy input of 122,461.12 MJ/day. The highest energy consumption was biological energy which resulted from daily feed consumption of 3000 kg at the rate of 120 g per bird per day. This made up 83.81% of the total energy consumed. These resulted in an energy consumption ratio of 1.05, energy productivity of 0.034 kg/MJ, specific energy of 29.29 MJ/kg and net energy of 6,569.09 MJ/day, respectively. Faecal materials constituted the bulk of the output from the system. Making use of the faecal material in its treated form for the production of feed components would reduce energy costs, increase farmers' net income and also encourage environmentally efficient processes.