AA SA seminar focuses on poultry house ventilation

The recent Arbor Acres South Africa (AA SA) 3rd annual customer seminar, held near Johannesburg, focused on poultry house environmental control and ventilation.

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, an 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.

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% since 1985, so this rise must be considered in any ventilation calculations.

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.

Source: Aviagen