Abstract:

At present，the feed for laying hens in China mainly consists of corn and soybean meal. As a by-product of soybean oil extraction，soybean meal has a large price fluctuation，which has a negative impact on the livestock and poultry breeding in China. Therefore，seeking the diversification of energy feed and reducing the use of soybean meal will be an inevitable trend in the future development of laying hen feed. This experiment aims to study the effects of wheat replacing corn and reducing the amount of soybean meal on the production performance and egg quality of Hy-line Brown laying hens. The results showed that when wheat completely replaced corn and the amount of soybean meal was reduced from 25% to 15%，there were no significant differences in the laying rate，average egg weight and feed-to-egg ratio of laying hens. When wheat replaced corn and the amount of soybean meal was reduced to 18%，the average egg weight can be significantly （p0.05） increased. After wheat replaced corn，the egg quality indicators such as yolk ratio，albumen height and Haugh unit were significantly improved；however，there was no significant effect on eggshell strength and eggshell thickness. It can be seen that replacing corn with wheat and reducing the amount of soybean meal not only did not reduce the laying performance of laying hens，but also significantly enhanced some egg quality of laying hens. This experiment provided theoretical and practical support for the application of wheat in laying hen breeding and reducing the use of soybean meal，and also provided an alternative solution for the policy of reducing and replacing corn and soybean meal.

Key words: Hy-line Brown laying hen, wheat, laying performance, egg quality