Parent stock management lessons learned at Arbor Acres school

The sixth week-long Arbor Acres school for customers from Russia and Kazakhstan recently took place in the Netherlands. The school has become an important annual event in the region as a platform to improve knowledge and share experiences from a wide range of parent stock management backgrounds.
The aim of the school is to provide a mix of theory and practical support. Eight attendees from four companies, stretching from the Black Sea to Siberia, took part in this year’s school, including Agrokomplex, Bashkirsky Broiler, Elinar Broiler and Sayanski Broiler.
Key topics covered were parent stock (PS) management, ventilation and biosecurity. Two full days of training took place at the Barneveld College, supported by practical sessions on ventilation for PS and broilers by Dutch companies PTC+ (Jos Mulder) and Koudijs (Henk Rodenboog). The group also took time to see the theory put into practice at three state-of-the-art broiler farms in the Netherlands.
Dr. Zoltan Marton from the Aviagen Global Veterinary team highlighted the importance of providing birds with the cleanest possible environment for expressing genetic potential. In order to prevent pathogen challenges one must keep in mind biosecurity protocols in every part of the production process.
Craig Morton, Aviagen global product director, talked about research and development using proven techniques, coupled with the latest available technology, with the overall aim of developing products to suit different environments, such as the challenging conditions of the CIS. Dejan Bosanac, Arbor Acres technical service manager, shared management advice with the delegates, focusing on the importance of attention to detail in stockmanship.
Attendee Tatiana Pastuchova commented: “The new perspectives presented here gave us ideas that, hopefully we can turn into practice and reach the results many other Russian Arbor Acres customers have already achieved.”