Economic values in broiler breeding.

The objectives of this study were to derive economic values in broiler breeding and to determine their relationship with production circumstances. Economic values were derived using a deterministic economic model based on profit equations with a fixed amount of broiler meat output of the production system. Nonintegrated and the integrated broiler production systems were studied. The difference between these originates from different definitions of cost components and scaling aspects. For each stage of an nonintegrated system, the model calculated the profit margin; for an integrated system, (total) cost prices per unit of product at each stage were calculated. The Dutch broiler performance data and prices were input into the model as the representative situation. For all traits, in the nonintegrated system, economic values were derived, expressed as Dutch guilders (Dfl) per unit of product, where the unit of product depends on the stage of the production system and equals an egg for the multiplier breeder, a day-old chick for the hatchery, and a marketable broiler for the commercial grower and processor. Resulting levels of economic values were illustrated by showing underlying cost or profit changes in the production system. For the integrated system, economic values were expressed as Dfl x marketable broiler(-1) x unit(-1). Economic values of traits in the integrated system were also derived for situations where technical parameters or prices of productive factors were changed (20% increase or decrease). A general conclusion from these sensitivity analyses is that the economic values are sensitive to production levels, product prices and feed prices; there are both linear and nonlinear relationships between economic values and production circumstances.