Red Rock Breeders Receive Top Flock Award
SOUTH AFRICA - South African hatching egg producer Red Rock Breeders is the latest winner of the annual breeder award presented by Cobb for the best performance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
6 August 2008
3 minute read
Red Rock Breeders, which is linked to the Kuipers group, supplies hatching eggs for Eagles Pride hatchery.
The owners of Red Rock Breeders, Keith Millard and Arend Kuipers, received the award from Jonathan Cade, sales director of Cobb Europe, and Antony Taylor, regional account manager, at a presentation in November.
Eagles Pride Hatchery, which produces about 1.4 million chicks per week, has become the biggest independently owned hatchery in South Africa.
The company has four hatcheries, all in the Gauteng and Northwest Provinces, supplying mostly broiler growers in the inland regions of South Africa. The head office and three of the hatcheries are in Pretoria, while the newest hatchery is at Koster, west of Pretoria in the NW region.
The Red Rock rearing farms have a controlled environment with chain feeders and reasonably good light control although not black-out. The laying houses are open-sided with natural ventilation.
Pieter Oosthuysen, sales and technical manager of Cobb South Africa, writes of the company’s association with Cobb:
‘Red Rock has a history with Cobb that goes back to the early 1990s. I remember taking Ken George to meet them for technical services - that was before Cobb South Africa started, they bought the breed from Rainbow. The current flock placement started about 2004 with Cobb being about 50%. Then Cobb increased to 80% and then the Group started rotating breeds between the farms to share the Cobb benefit with all hatching egg producers.
‘Keith and Jonathan Millard attended a trip with Cobb South Africa and Cobb-Vantress to USA during 2003. During this time, I got to know them very well and realized they would be successful.
Keith and Jonathan Millard are hard-working, dedicated farmers. Jonathan reared the award-winning flock exceptionally well, with no problems during this phase. This continued during laying production achieving world-class results. We shouldn’t forget the state-of-the-art hatchery equipment and dedicated hatchery managers who work just as hard to make sure every fertile egg is hatched!
They’re all always open to advice to improve performance on the farm. They regularly attend - never miss - a Cobb presentation to keep abreast of the latest in parent stock management. Their success with fertility is due to their stockmanship, with weekly meetings to discuss the condition of the males, feed allocation and weight - hence the 87% hatchability.’
