Comparison of three mathematical models of egg production

Abstract
1. Egg production of four‐way crosses of seven commercial stocks of White Leghorns was summarised for each hen into 28‐d periods starting from the day of first egg. 2. The exponential models of McMillan and of Wood and a linear regression were fitted to the results for individual hens, as well as to the mean results for periods of groups of hens. 3. Overall, the McMillan model gave the best results with mean R2 of 0.71 from fitting it to the results for 223 individuals with sixteen 28‐d periods each and R2 of 0.97 from fitting it to the period means for groups. The respective R2 values were 0.68 and 0.95 for the Wood model and 0.60 and 0.90 for the linear regression.