If used in layer hen diets, the limestone must be considered carefully because it might be the source of reduced eggshell resistance.
Calcium is one of those essential nutrients that can be secured cheap. This is true for all kinds of diets for pigs, poultry, ruminants, even pets.
With calcium being inexpensive, oversupply rather than deficiency is usually the problem. As it stands, calcium carbonate (in pure form or as limestone) is used as a carrier for most premixed products (drugs, vitamins, trace minerals, nutritional additives, and even some concentrates). It is even added at the rate of 0.5 percent in soybean meal as a flow enhancer — a fact largely unknown. Thus, most diets usually contain 10 to 20 percent more calcium than the actual target figure used during feed formulation. This causes virtually no problems, if we ignore the cost-price issue, with the only notable exception being that of layer hens.
Whereas most animal diets contain less than 1 percent calcium, layer diets must contain substantially more. Indeed, such diets contain from 3 to 4 percent, only because the formation of each eggshell requires 2 grams of calcium (in the form of about 5.5 grams of calcium carbonate). Thus, maximizing calcium intake is crucial for these animals. Although exceeding 4 percent dietary calcium can cause metabolic disorders (and hence other dietary means are employed to maximize calcium absorption rather than intake), it is the possibility of a calcium deficiency that concerns our discussion here. As it is logical to assume, a reduced calcium intake will cause layer hens first to deplete their bone reserves (with ensuing leg disorders), and then to reduce and eventually cease egg production. All the while, eggshell resistance decreases and cracked egg numbers increase.
Limestone comes from a wide variety of sources and in very different forms and degrees of hardness. Thus, its solubility, availability, and even its concentration in calcium can be unpredictable. For example, calcium concentration varies between 32 and 38 percent. Assuming a typical layer diet contains 10 percent limestone, this translates to a range of 3.2 to 3.8 percent dietary calcium. The difference (0.6 percent) is considered enormous for layer hen diets to be ignored.
If you need Limestone with high purity and whiteness as well as suitable for animals, please feel free to contact us for the best support.
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COMMENTS:
Andrew Reply
Calcium carbonate can be derived from different sources of materials such as lime stone , eggshell , also derived from calcium carbide, all these are tested and give good results from the laboratory but the differences are colour which includes white colour, Ash colour and off-white. Kindly explain which of these mentioned are good for plastic production ??
04/04/2022