GAP Resource Company finds Ross a tailor-made fit

GAP Resource Company employees celebrate becoming the first member of the Ross 140 Club in Asia.
The success of the Ross 308 parent stock in Russia has led to the creation of a club to celebrate the bird's performance at breeder level. This Ross 140 Club goes hand-in-hand with the Ross 400 Club which recognizes outstanding performance at broiler level. The Russian Ross 140 Club, set up by Aviagen, has already welcomed its inaugural member, GAP Resource Company, based in the southern region of Russia, near Krasnodar and Stavropol.
The Ross 140 Club credits local farmers who have achieved a performance of more than 140 chicks per female hen housed. This target has been set according to local conditions including climate and nutrition.
The general rules of joining the Russian Ross 140 club are as follows:
• The assessment is made of Parent Stock (PS) birds which are from the same delivery and all the birds should be of the same age.
• The age for evaluating the amount of chicks per hen housed should not be more than 64 weeks (approximately 40 weeks).
As part of the judging process, Aviagen representatives visited farms in Mineralnye Vody and Yuzhny Filial, the second being a Team 7 subsidiary firm of GAP Resource. Both had achieved the established levels of performance under the expert eye of GAP Resource's Head PS Technologist, Pavel Nikolayevich Ivanenko.
Eduard Taktarov, Aviagen sales director, said: "It is a big honor for me to present the first Ross 140 Club certificate in Russia to the GAP Resource Company. Our companies have enjoyed a long history of partnership and we know each other very well. I would like to thank the directors and staff for their wonderful hospitality - the Caucasus met its guests with its incredible spring weather and lots of snow, which was immediately melted down by the hearty welcome of the farm staff. I wish the GAP Resource management even greater success and higher results in the future."
An award ceremony took place at Team 7's facility, where Taktarov congratulated all the farm staff for their efforts in achieving this result. 
Eduard added: "The work done by Vitaly Kiriakov, technologist of the Vostok department, Artur Klychev, team leader of the site, Alyona Ubogova, management assistant, and Aik Mkrtchyan, veterinarian, is second to none. It was the excellent diligence of the staff that helped to achieve such a high result, which is especially difficult with manual nests, requiring special persistence."
The results were as follows:
• Number of females at point of lay - 53,900
• Age at depletion (weeks) - 63
• Hatching eggs hen housed - 176.3
• Livability percent (laying period) - 90.1
• Chicks/female hen housed - 140.1
Pavel Ivanenko commented: "In general, within the sites of GAP Resource the Ross 308 birds show constant improvement - our last performance indices were 134.9 and 136.3 chicks per female hen housed. However, in late 2013 we achieved our best level so far - 140.1 chicks per female hen housed. We are very glad to become a member of the Aviagen Ross 140 Club as we are always striving for better results."