News Room

Aviagen Turkeys’ Customer Experience Day receives high praise

Many valued customers were welcomed to our Aviagen® Turkeys (ATL) annual customer experience day, which began Tuesday 3rd March 2020, with an evening meal at the De Vere Cranage Estate near Sandbach, Crewe.

The event continued the following day at the De Vere Cranage Estate – and at ATL’s trials facility. Clay Burrows, Managing Director of ATL, started the day with a welcoming presentation, before customers were taken around different demonstrations and displays.

John RalphDirector of R&D, gave a presentation on product development. This allowed attendees to perform their own pedigree selections, which provided them with first-hand understanding of the selection process and how this enables us to produce stronger, more robust and balanced birds. 

Carlo NorciManagement Specialist at ATL and Sam JonesATL’s Laying Farms Manager gave a presentation about factors that affect fertility including elements of anatomy and physiology of both male and female reproductive systems. Carlo also spoke about how to correct fertility issues through improving management techniques and Sam discussed semen quality and how to use it for optimal results. 

Marcus KennyCompany Nutritionist, presented the economic factors of nutrition by assessing the biological and economical response to nutrient density and the economic response under different nutritional variables. Marcus also assessed the nutritional response of B.U.T. 6 birds. 

ATL would like to thank SRUC for allowing us to use their mobile sensory lab as part of our open day demonstration. This allowed customers to blind taste test different types of turkey meat against chicken and pork and indicate their preferences. The exercise gave us the chance to obtain useful data to address questions about the eating quality of turkey meat and also test theories about which types of turkeys and proteins give better eating quality. 

Live demonstrations were presented at Aviagen Turkeys trials farm – and Martin SheaManaging Director of Hockenhull Turkeys Ltd demonstrated the versatility of Hockenhull breeds by displaying a range of carcass weights to clarify how these traditional breeds are meeting a range of customers’ needs. 

Martin also gave a sexing demonstration (using coloured feathers) in one-day-old and four-week old poults and described the economic benefits of growing these breeds. 

Valentin KremerGenetics Programme Manager and Steve TurnerSelection & FCR Manager, displayed ATL’s product make-up by showcasing traits of pedigree stock, parent stock and commercial stock. 

Valentin & Steve also presented the different elements of the Pedigree Operations, including video footage of selection, a demonstration of how gait scoring is carried out on our farms and how our feed and water stations are used to select for FCR and water intake traits. They also discussed the impact of collected data on future generations of our product lines.  

Management Specialists ran a demonstrations of the importance of of the brooding period and the preparation of both whole house and brooding ring set ups. This demonstration showed the differences between a good and poor brooding ring set up and how these differences could impact on poult development and ultimately, company profits.  

Kenton HazelATL’s Director of Production and Veterinary Support, gave an in depth presentation about the turkey digestive system, using a whole digestive tract to demonstrate the key stages in development. Kenton also discussed factors that can negatively impact on development and function and how these factors can be avoided during production. 

Literature, posters and promotional items were available throughout the event and customers were also free to have their picture taken with some of our rare breed turkeys on the farm, which was a highlight for many.

From everyone here at Aviagen Turkeys Ltd, we would like to say a huge thank-you to all of our customers who took the time to attend our Customer Experience Day 2020.

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