40 POULTRY PRODUCTION
Poultry production: all you need to know What does the production process of broilers look like? The production process of broilers starts with the breeding organisations, they breed and develop different broiler breeds. The breeding organisations supply one-day-old chicks to the rearing companies, who raise these chicks to adult parent stock, which are transported to the breeder farms. The breeders produce hatching eggs for the hatcheries, which hatch them to produce chicks for the broiler farms. The modern broiler farms produce chicks ready for slaughter in 5.5 to 6 weeks. These are slaughtered by the slaughterhouse and further processed into chicken products, which are bought by the consumer in the supermarket. In the case of slow-growing broilers, which are used for special market segments, the daily growth is lower and it takes up to 9 weeks before the chicks are ready for slaughter.
LIVESTOCK & POULTRY ME
In traditional production systems, the chicks are hatched in a hatchery and are then transported to the broiler farms. In addition, new techniques are available where pre-incubated eggs are transported to the broiler farm instead of dayold chicks, so the eggs hatch on the broiler farm. For this purpose, systems like the Patio, a multi-tier housing system, and the X-Treck for a floor house/ deep litter house have been developed. With these systems, the hatching eggs are placed in the house during the last 3 days of the incubation process, which is called ‘on-farm hatching’. How do you start with broilers? How to set up a broiler production column depends on the intended production volume and the local market conditions and needs. If the focus is on the fresh market, you will need to set up the column differently from when you want to produce
frozen chickens. When setting up a new production column, the starting point is the number of chicks per carcass weight that need to be slaughtered each week. This determines the capacity of the slaughterhouse and from there you can calculate the number of locations, the number of houses per location and the number of broilers per house. On this, the hatchery capacity, the required hatching egg production and the broiler breeder facilities need to be based. There are calculation models available for this, which can be calculated together with investors. The next step is to furnish these facilities with the right barn equipment, taking a critical look at the latest welfare requirements and the required level of automation. The specialists of Vencomatic Group can be of service here. In the full production chain of broilers, there are many things to optimize: mainly climate, then water
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2021
