Experts agree that the way in which animals and poultry are managed can affect 70 to 90% of their health, welfare and productivity.
Poultry producers, in turn, recognise that good management and stockmanship are essential for their birds and for their businesses. That is why Aviagen has made “Importance of management and stockmanship” #4 of its Top 5 corporate commitments, and the sharing of knowledge is vital in putting this commitment into action.
In fact, transfer and sharing of knowledge is important in supporting all five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritized by the International Poultry Council (IPC) as areas where the poultry industry can make a difference in promoting a better and more sustainable future for all. In this article, Aviagen’s Global Head of Technical Transfer Alan Thomson talks about how the company supports management and stockmanship by communicating the latest information to its customers, the world’s poultry producers.
Knowledge shared = Knowledge2
Pulitzer prize-winning poet Carl Sandburg once advised that, “knowledge shared is knowledge squared.” Aviagen ascribes to that philosophy, realizing that when we share the latest understanding and best practices with our customers and industry colleagues, benefits are multiplied as they share these findings with their own teams. Knowledge sharing starts with our local teams of Technical Service Managers (TSMs), who work with customers to understand their opportunities, help solve their daily challenges and champion their success. These TSM teams in turn collaborate with veterinarians, nutritionists, welfare, sustainability, hatchery and incubation specialists, as well as management experts, who themselves engage regularly with customers both globally and locally.
Since our GTT team was formed in 2007, we have produced a host of documents covering an extensive range of topics, all with the aim of providing our customers with proven strategies to ensure optimal bird health, welfare and performance. This advice comes in the form of handbooks, performance objectives, nutrition specifications and practical guides that provide clear and concise procedural and explanatory information on daily management tasks. Moreover, there are posters, videos, as well as many innovative and interactive tools to help gather and analyze flock data. To provide our global customers with a local touch, information is tailored to diverse regional climates, conditions and production systems, and is often available in multiple languages. These can be downloaded from our Aviagen web site. We also have our Apps for our key brands, tailored to local requirements and languages, in line with Aviagen’s commitment to produce globally applicable literature combined with a regional touch.
Our global markets are ever-evolving, which means we are on an exciting road of continuous development. Our plethora of tools for sharing information with our customers plays a vital role in this journey. Excellence in management and stockmanship and communication of best-practice advice are essential tools to help the world’s poultry producers successfully bring healthy chicken from farm to fork, putting an affordable, sustainable source of nutrition on the tables of families around the globe.