New Cobb flock award presented in France

A new award for the top Cobb flock in France has been presented to the Jadault family of Menomblet, Vendée, working with the Boyé hatchery.

Their winning flock of 8000 Cobb500 parents achieved 150.89 chicks during 39 weeks of production.

Roy Mutimer, general manager of Cobb Europe, stated “With our increasing market share in France, we feel the time is opportune to introduce this new award to recognise top performance in the French industry. The result compares very favourably with the performance we are seeing on other top flocks across Europe.”

The Jadault family began farming in dairy production in 1976 and introduced a poultry enterprise in 1992, starting an association with the Boyé hatchery at les Deux Sèvres in Poitou Charente. They stopped milk output in 1998 to concentrate on poultry, putting up a second house for production of hatching eggs.

Cédric Jadault joined his parents Nadine and Francis in the business in 2011 in order to expand production capacity to 23,000 breeders in three houses.

Boyé hatchery is part of the Terrena group, one of the major cooperatives in French agriculture. It has been established for 60 years and hatches one million chicks a week along with 200,000 guinea fowl. There are some 50 farmers in the partnership with the Boyé hatchery, which is currently seeking additional breeder farms to continue its expansion.

At the presentation — from left, Roy Mutimer, Francis Jadault, Cédric Jadault, Guillaume Villeger, technical supervisor Boyé, Jacques Pasquier, production director Boyé and Philippe Gouault, Cobb Europe