Arbor Acres Seminar Focuses on Ventilation

SOUTH AFRICA - The recent Arbor Acres South Africa (AA SA) 3rd annual customer seminar, held near Johannesburg, focused on poultry house environmental control and ventilation.
calendar icon 4 April 2011
clock icon 4 minute read

The two-day event was attended by over 60 AA SA customers, farmers and managers from all over the country and was hosted by the AA SA team in conjunction with Aviagen’s regional Arbor Acres customer service team.

Mike Czarick from the University of Georgia, a world authority on poultry house ventilation and environmental control, was the key note speaker at the seminar.

Tommie Snyman, General Manager AA SA, updated the audience on the success of the AA Plus, now the favourite product of the independent market sector. The regional AA team consisting of Dr Akos Klausz, Veterinarian, Mohsen Ganjaei, Technical Service Manager, and Stanley Millar, Commercial Manager, highlighted the importance of technical inputs to maximise genetic potential and presented global benchmarking trends for the AA Plus. Mr Millar emphasised the importance of customer feed-back with field data to ensure effective monitoring of field performance compared to genetic predictions.

Further lectures, covering various management aspects, were presented by the local AA SA team of Deon Venter and Glenn Bushell, supported by Mohsen Ganjaei, whilst health and veterinary developments were discussed by Dr Frank Travers, Dr Henry Aitchison and Dr Akos Klausz.

The highlight of the proceedings was Mike Czarick's presentation, which not only addressed the engineering aspects of ventilation design, but also included a helpful reminder to customers to keep adopting the broiler house environment in line with genetic progress in terms of growth rate, FCR and yield. Mike gave a practical example of this: Due to faster growth rates and increased feed consumption, water intake has increased by 50 per cent since 1985, so this rise must be considered in any ventilation calculations.

Tommie Snyman commented: "The event was a great platform for the AA SA and AA Teams to spend time with our customers from all over the country and to share practical information on all aspects of management, which will ensure that the genetic potential of the AA Plus is consistently maximised. Since we launched the product in the market in 2006, results have spoken for themselves and more and more customers choose the AA plus, truly making it 'the choice for success'."

Stanley Millar added: "It was not surprising that, with the calibre of Mike Czarick's knowledge and communication skills, his presentations on winter and summer ventilation were followed with intense interest and much appreciated by the audience. He truly managed to convey a lot of practical tips and inspire new ways of poultry house management in the very challenging environment of South Africa.

"The seminar was a wonderful opportunity for the AA and AA SA teams to work closely with many old and new friends from the growing customer base in South Africa. The interaction at both the business and social level was very interesting and enjoyable. The climax of the gala dinner was the re-enactment of the popular South African rugby show 'Boots N' All'. Special guests in the 'studio' were two former Springbok heroes, Chris Rossouw and Ollie Le Roux, who are also actively involved in the poultry industry. What a combination! Ollie is a very successful broiler contract grower for Supreme with, of course, Arbor Acres as his winning breed."

In addition to the main event, a local meeting was also held on in Klerksdorp, North West Province, for an audience of around 40 local farmers and managers.

© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.