In addition to having meetings with the Hy-Line team and touring the Millennium Hatchery, the two groups of visitors were lucky enough to have a private tour of the new, state-of-the-art colony system at Oaklands Farm in Shropshire.

"We're really proud of the new system," commented Gareth Griffiths, director of Oaklands. "And we were more than happy to show it to Hy-Line's visitors. We've been working with Hy-Line for many years and have forged a strong working relationship with the Hy-Line team. We have just housed the new system with Hy-Line variety Brown and have found the breed to be feed efficient, produce high egg numbers, have a good egg shell quality and display an excellent temperament – all of which improve the productivity of the new system."

The overseas visitors represented all areas of the poultry industry, including a number of egg producers from the Netherlands, who were invited by Hy-Line Benelux BV and accompanied by Peter van der Krabben, former regional business manager of Hy-Line International UK, Gert van Drie, sales manager of Hy-Line Benelux BV and Theo Mutsters, who is responsible for Hy-Line sales in the southern Netherlands.

Hy-Line's guests from Russia and Ukraine included Timofej Kavun, co-owner of Three T, a parent stock customer from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan; Sofia Volodina, director of Kovrov, a commercial poultry farm (Vladzernoproduct), which has over 400,000 Hy-Line W-98 layers; and Alexander Suvorov, who is responsible for commercial chick distribution and director of the parent stock farm Vladzernoproduct, has 25,000 W-98 parent stock per year. Both Sofia and Alexander have worked with Hy-Line products for the past five years. Also joining the group was Valeriy Stepanenko, regional business manager for Hy-Line International (UK) covering Russia and Eastern Europe.

Hy-Line UK's guests were accompanied by Jonathan Cade, Hy-Line International (UK) sales director and Louise Butler, Hy-Line UK's sales and marketing manager.