Cobb Asia-Pacific

Why is feeder space so important in managing broiler breeders? In the rearing period, feed distribution is a key to achieve proper body development and good flock uniformity. While in the production period, feed distribution is also important to ensure birds get enough feed intake for egg production as hens, and mating activities for males. A good feed distribution can’t be achieved without correct ‘feeder space”. To achieve good performance in broiler breeder, we need to manage feeder space correctly.  Watch the video to learn more. https://lnkd.in/gtFtWWaA

Q: What would happen if we managed the grading every day and give extra feed for small birds every day in a special pen? How can we manage the bird population in this small pen during rearing? A: We don't recommend grading every day because this will create stress for the bird and interrupt normal growth and development. In general, grading should be done at 4 and 8 weeks of age and separate small birds in pens and give extra feed. Grading is a tool to improve flock uniformity but it's not tool to fix feed management issues. Farms should focus on feed distribution, progressive feeder space, water consumption, environment control and biosecurity for good flock uniformity. If you experience chick quality issues, we recommend doing an early grading at 7 days to recover super small chicks as soon as possible. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g-y4YR6X

The first four weeks is considered to be a foundation of success for an optimum breeder performance. Also, 1st four weeks can be considered as our investment to establish early flock uniformity and as well early development of skeletal frame of the birds.. The are four major factors that we need to watch for on the first four weeks. Watch the video to learn more. https://lnkd.in/gFEzGNtt

Q: What is the crumble size recommendation? A: In general, crumble size is 1.0-2.8 mm and control the percentage of oversized pieces (bigger than 2.8 mm) to no more than 25%-35%. You can adjust it depending on the mesh size you have in feed mill and reevaluate cleanup time on the farm. To read more, visit https://lnkd.in/gujcYMrt

Q: How can we have a comfortable in-house temperature, in high humidity and a high temperature climate? A: It all comes back to understanding how the hen or broiler thermoregulates in hot and humid weather. If you increase humidity the hen will increase its respiration rate – panting – to evaporate more moisture from its respiratory tract. If this air is carrying a lot of moisture, the ability to eliminate heat greatly diminishes up to a point where heat builds in the hen, unless we increase air exchange and loose a greater percentage of heat to the surrounding air. The only option at our disposal is to use an evaporative cooling system which drops ambient temperature to the 28 - 29°C range and exchange the air as quickly as possible to keep the hens internal temperature stable. We need 3 things: - Good ceiling insulation and an airtight house – we want all the air entering the house to pass through the evaporative pads. - In hot humid climates, the hens need at least 500fpm (2.5m/s), but I would recommend for a little more – 3m/s or 600fpm - Manage your tunnel inlet – curtain or door – to get as much air as possible to move along the slats. Don’t drop your curtain to the fully open position – this encourages most of the incoming air to run down the scratch area. Run some trials to see if you can direct an extra 50 – 70 fpm more down the slats. You will never get perfect uniformity. Closing the curtain or tunnel door too much will increase tunnel fan pressure and reduce average speeds. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gwmpejhP

Why is feeder space so important in managing broiler breeders? In the rearing period, feed distribution is a key to achieve proper body development and good flock uniformity. While in the production period, feed distribution is also important to ensure birds get enough feed intake for egg production as hens, and mating activities for males. A good feed distribution can’t be achieved without correct ‘feeder space”. To achieve good performance in broiler breeder, we need to manage feeder space correctly.  Watch the video to learn more. https://lnkd.in/gqVMyZsa

Q: Can eggs from the cold room be placed inside incubator without pre-warming? A: For multi-stage incubator, setting eggs directly from the cold room will cause the machine to take a little longer to reach set point. If eggs are pre-warmed, the machine will recover quicker. If the machine takes more than 2.5-3.0 hours to recover, there may be a few more early dead embryos. The main issue will be on achieving ideal hatch window. Whenever cold eggs are placed into multi-stage incubator without pre-warming, the temperature inside the incubator will drop and this spreads the hatch window. For single-stage incubators, there is no need to pre-warm the eggs before placing them inside the incubator. Single-stage incubators typically have a setting of 80F for 4-6 hours to pre-warm eggs before trying to achieve 100.4F. Pre-warming eggs before setting is a good idea if we have a dedicated room with proper airflow, similar to incubator conditions. It is not recommended to pre-warm eggs if it is done in the hallway in front of the incubators. Pre-warming in front of the incubators will cause the eggs to condensate, which will increase the contamination percentage. Pre-warming in the hallway with poor airflow will not warm the eggs evenly and this will spread the hatch window. Without a proper room for pre-warming, it is best to set eggs from the cold storage room directly into the incubator. Read more here https://lnkd.in/gjkf4cTH

Litter is considered one of the most important farming inputs that directly and indirectly impacts the overall breeder performance. The direct impacts include biosecurity, as litter is usually outsourced. If the litter was not managed correctly, it will create problems like ammonia build-up, increase humidity, foot pad dermatitis, and/or breast blisters that indirectly affect the bird’s performance. Watch the video to learn more. https://lnkd.in/gCbiTdwM

Q: Is ELISA a good tool for monitoring FAdV? If so, what level of titers indicates protective titers or active infection? Do we have a threshold to interpret ELISA result? A: The short answer is: ELISA is not a good tool to monitor FAdV infection. Interpretation of FAdV ELISA is not easy unless the results are negative (this can happen but rarely), meaning that the flock has not been infected. ELISA analyses are not specific to one serotype, so, a positive result (>6000) may show contamination by a pathogenic or an apathogenic virus. However, to assess the vaccination, ELISA might be useful and the titres expected are higher than 10,000. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gQjWzsdE

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