C HA N GI NG C ON S UM ER P ER CE P TI ON O F F AR M RE AR ED C H IC KE N

focus
W O R L D W I D E

THREE 2011

K&Ns leads industry growth in Pakistan

small broiler farm with 1000 chicks in 1964. At that time there was no commercial poultry production in Pakistan. All chickens were backyard poultry known as Desi, grown mainly by families in small numbers around their own homes in the villages. Pakistan was a young independent nation, and malnutrition was a major problem, with one out of four children dying before the age of five. Poultry would Today K&Ns is the epitome of a fully provide the quickest and least vertically integrated poultry business from expensive source of the protein the production of Cobb parent stock to needed to improve nutrition the chain of highly rated K&Ns Chicken and Khalil Sattar had the vision Stores selling chicken and value-added to see this potential. chicken products in 15 of the largest cities His first flock was reared in Pakistan. in a spare shed at his familys It was all so different when the founder, edible oil business. His success Khalil Sattar, a college student, began a in selling these broilers to local hotels encouraged him to expand his farming activities, confounding the perception at the time that farm grown chickens were inferior to backyard poultry or birds bought at the roadside and slaughtered under Halal rules in front of the customer. However, this was very much a start-up venture for Khalil. With availability of day-old chicks limiting industry growth, he decided in 1974 to move Adil Sattar (second left) and his father Khalil (second right) with into breeding and, Duncan Granshaw and Mohammad Ismail of Cobb at one of K&Ns stores in Lahore. Above, possibly the worlds largest chick regarding eggs as the best form of protein, he began billboards - 18 x 6m (60 x 20ft) - as displayed in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad supplying commercial egg The growth of Cobb distributor K&Ns in Pakistan has provided a model for the development of the countrys poultry industry which rates among the top ten producers in the world. More than 45 years ago Khalil Sattar recognised the potential to move from domestic to industry scale production and his company has triumphed through many ups and downs in the market.

in this issue
Zambia: Hybrid Poultry 50 years on..........................3 Balkans: Agroziv moving ahead................................3 Compartmentalization: Global perspective...4 & 5 Seminars around the world...................................6 & 7 News of our people...........................................................8 US flock awards.................................................................8

producers with day-old pullet chicks. His aim was also to put the industry on a sound footing, making it commercially viable.

His initial venture with layers took him to the Babcock Corporation located in Ithaca, upstate New York. Since 1974, through an exclusive franchise agreement, K&Ns is the sole producer and distributor of Babcock pullet chicks for Pakistans market. Broiler breeding began in 1981 to increase the supply of day-old broiler chicks to commercial broiler farmers. At that time K&Ns was selling broiler chicks to farmers who grew them up to 5-6 weeks. The business focus then was on increasing volume - important commercially for K&Ns but also developing a strong backbone for the industry.
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DISTRIBUTOR PROFILE: K&Ns, PAKISTAN

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In 2001 K&Ns returned to broiler growing with larger scale, controlled-environment facilities, which laid the foundation for this type of production in Pakistan. Up to then most producers had less than 5,000 broilers per shed, fed them manually and usually housed birds in thatched roof sheds. Currently K&Ns has six broiler growing facilities, each with capacity for 250300,000 birds. The Cobb 500 broilers are grown to 36 days, averaging 1.87 kg with a 1.75 to 1.85 feed conversion ratio. For all the farms and other operations back-up generators are essential as power breakdowns occur regularly, can be unpredictable and last six to eight hours at times. K&Ns s t r o n g c o m m i t m e n t t o cooperation and industry development encouraged new entrepreneurs, pushing up demand for day-old broiler chicks. This lead to increased placement of parent stock, so that in 2007 Pakistan was one of the top ten poultry producers in the world with over eight million broiler parent stock producing more than 800 million birds a year. The expansion had also been triggered by high prices following the drastic drop in production in 2004/05 when Pakistan suffered badly from bird flu. With over production in 2007/8 and a reported bird flu case in a remote area, poultry prices crashed once again. Add to this a 68% increase in feed cost and heavy losses were made with a 40% reduction in production in 2008/09. Day-old chick price at the end of 2008 dropped to (Pakistani Rupees) Rs. 1-4 (2008 Rs 80 = US$1) with some breeding

companies even giving away day-old broiler chicks against a production cost of over Rs 20 per chick. Consequently, almost 40% of producers closed, reducing the supply of day-old chicks and increasing their price. As demand recovered there was a shortage of parent stock. This led in 2008 to K&Ns reaching an agreement to become a Cobb grandparent franchise producing Cobb 500 parent stock for their own breeding programme and supplying other breeding companies to help rebuild the industry. The decision was made after splithouse trials with both Cobb and competitor breeds, assessing parent stock performance, broiler feed conversions and growth rates, says Khalil Sattar, chairman and chief executive of K&Ns. We discovered the closest international competitor of Cobb required superior

Top, K&Ns processing plant; bottom, its grandparent farm near Abbottabad

quality pellets and high density feed which could not be readily and extensively made available in the country with the marginal nature of nutrition, says Adil Sattar, executive director of K&Ns. Broilers of other breeds did not compete well as we found the Cobb 500 broiler to be the most cost effective. On the breeding side, Cobb parent stock performed as well as any other and consequently we chose Cobb. We feel that with Cobb 500 in Pakistan we can contribute positively towards enabling farmers to produce a live kg of chicken at least cost and in the most efficient manner. In 2011/12 K&Ns expects to produce 80 million layer and broiler chicks. In the 1960s and 1970s, obtaining safe, reliable sources of poultry feed was an insurmountable challenge in Pakistan. This led Khalil to set up his own feed mill to produce feed for K&Ns operations at Karachi in 1971. With the growing need of feed for the integrated production operations in Central Punjab province and Northern areas of the country, a feed mill established by a multi-national company at Lahore, was acquired by K&Ns to take advantage of low cost feed ingredients available in the Central part of Pakistan. The growth of commercial poultry production through the decades changed the mindset of consumers towards farm raised broilers and eggs, helped by lower prices and greater availability. Today Desi
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ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

their partnership with Cobb as a grandparent dist )"MYg]/n$3x,[OsPOoPUg]x,[OrPUZY]ebgZGYGd,[OrPUZeewGbcYGOPaaaacZY]dZeOaPU co / ,[j[j 7nYGx,[OnP]xx,aUbYx,[OuYg]tYGhPUUZx,Y]g]YeGYGd,[OxPUb]PUcUZVZcY] bhYb] YUinGfGUZVZcG,[OiPUa] xjYY[O [Ol,YVafZGYY] xjYY[OtYY]x,[x,[ x,[OY,[OuPUg It was a real privilege to be present at the 50th anniversary celebrations of Hybrid Poultry in Lusaka, Zambia in June. This is an outstanding commercial milestone and it was clear from the publicity surrounding the event that Hybrid have established themselves as a key player in the agricultural community and are widely recognized for their contribution to the Zambian economy. It was great that this milestone also coincided with the 10th Anniversary of

COMPARTMENTALIZATION: THE NEXT STEPS

Preparing for the inevitable with reassurances in place

by Dr KATE BARGER, veterinary groups and quality assurance manager/veterinarian at Cobb Europe
When first proposed by the OIE (the world organisation for animal health) some six years ago, the concept of compartmentalization was designed to provide an additional level of confidence and credential beyond geographical borders or zones traditionally adopted during a notifiable disease outbreak. With compartmentalization, industry and governments not only consider the physical boundaries but also the epidemiological factors, including management practices and biosecurity, that help define an effective separation between subpopulations in the event of disease. The concept is aimed at helping with international trade and disease control during an active disease crisis episode in the exporting country. For trading during a disease crisis, compartmentalization can help with the movement of commodities where country or regional disease freedom assurances cannot be authorized. Secondly, for disease control or eradication procedures, progressive compartmentalization steps in a country may enable a more strategic approach for government risk analysis and disease prevention methods within a geographic area. While the purported benefits are straightforward for exporting countries, importing countries and suppliers of valuable commodities, implementation has been more challenging. for the specific details required for infrastructure, training of independent government staff to assess and approve sites, and the notification of approved compartments. In various cases, implementation Stage 2 has been a joint effort between industry and government. With the elite poultry breeding industry, exporting companies have a clear understanding of the need to have qualified biosecurity systems to help ensure that trade disruptions are limited in the event of a disease crisis within the country of origin. For governments, having approved compartments for a defined subspecies may not only improve the quantity and frequency of disease surveillance within the subpopulation, but should also provide greater transparency and traceability of livestock with regards to biosecurity and epidemiological factors.

Qualified biosecurity systems

The OIE has clearly provided a framework for compartments, but the responsibility lies with individual countries

Compartment expectations
To implement compartments, countries have responded in different ways to set up the procedures and assessments for their approved compartments. Some governments are using the OIE standards as a basic outline for compartmentalization. By only utilizing the OIE standards as the primary framework for their compartments, these governments allow companies to demonstrate the robustness of their biosecurity programs, epidemiologic links and disease surveillance systems to meet the OIE definitions for compartments. Other governments have additionally provided industry with stringent criteria to eliminate potential areas of selfinterpretation or leniency. These strict guidelines include clearly defined checklists for biosecurity and management procedures, expectations for facility infrastructure, surveillance testing and biosecurity measures that go well beyond the basic framework of the OIE criteria. A final example of Stage 2 implementation is the EU compartment standard that provides benchmark criteria for EU member countries. These EU

Epidemiologic isolation of farms is important for disease prevention. Biosecurity measures and compliance are, however, essential for compartment approval 4

COMPARTMENTALIZATION: THE NEXT STEPS

during the time of disease freedom. This period - essentially the calm before the storm - is vital to many exports and to proving that the compartments are sustainable. To facilitate this phase of understanding between governments for the purpose of international trade, small changes are already taking place. For example, updating export health certificates to include the text compartment in statements related to disease freedom is just a portion of the work that needs to be completed. For the actual recognition and approval of compartments to take place, the exporting government must be transparent with the standards and assessments they have provided to approve the compartment, and also be willing to openly share this information with the importing government. By sharing this information in advance for recognition of the compartment, the ultimate goal will be to avoid blanket country-wide restrictions and lengthy trade delays during notifiable disease situations. This was the original goal when the OIE began work on compartments years ago, and is still the goal for industry and governments today. In a perfect world there will be no need for a Stage 4 the real test of the compartment concept during a disease crisis. But, as we all know, it is best to be prepared for the inevitable and to have additional reassurances in place long before they will be needed!

Strict procedures for vehicles and personnel entry are critical to ensure epidemiologic separation

Standards are more specific and provide additional detail to basic OIE criteria. Once the national or governmental requirements are known, industries and individual companies can begin to implement Stage 2 by actively developing the documentation and implementing biosecurity measures to meet any additional compartment standards expected by their governments. As companies complete their internal work and achieve compartment recognition by the veterinary authority of the country where their production locations are situated, compartmentalization can then become a reality. Establishing operations as compartments elevates the company and the industry to a higher status of biosecurity and health during times of disease occurrence. While the process and implementation is indeed a burden and requires an incredible amount of attention to detail, most companies have found that these requirements have improved the objectives and assessments of their daily management procedures as well as transparency of their biosecurity actions. The next step for compartmentalization is Stage 3 and will critically demonstrate the functionality of approved compartments. This phase involves recognition, and in some cases evaluation, of the defined compartment by the importing country. At the recent May 2011 OIE meeting in Paris, a luncheon meeting was attended by approximately 165 OIE delegates to learn more about the UK

compartment scheme. Presentations highlighted the UKs collaborative effort between government and industry to determine the necessary criteria for compartments and the actual implementation and approval of compartments for poultry breeding companies located in Great Britain.

Calm before the storm

While events like this to promote the compartment process are vital, speakers also stated that importing/exporting governmental discussions about compartments must now take place

SEMINARS AROUND THE WORLD

Seminars are a very useful way of updating customers with the latest technical advice, as well as enabling them to share experiences and make new contacts. We report on the series of seminars organised by Cobb and our distributors through recent months.

Out and about in Friesland

As part of the commitment to provide world-leading support to customers, Cobb Europe hosted their technical seminar in Friesland in northern Holland. Our customers did us proud and we had excellent representation from grandparent distributors and parent stock customers, writes Euan Meldrum, Cobb Europe marketing manager. Delegates came from all parts of the Europe Middle East Africa region from Ireland to Saudi Arabia and Sweden to South Africa. The programme was devised for them to learn about specific aspects of poultry production with practical visits and presentations each day, The first day covered industry matters around the world along with economics of poultry production. Days two and three saw the delegates split into broiler or breeder groups and covering hatchery and production. The days following covered health and ventilation, including a visit to the Pluimveepraktijk Noord & Oost (North and East of Holland Poultry Practice) for practical demonstrations. The 18 members of the Cobb family who gave presentations during the five-day event were joined by two industry experts - Dr Ron Meijerhof who spoke about the effect on incubation on broiler performance and Dr Tony Marangos on optimal broiler nutrition for the Cobb products. Capturing the lifestyle in Friesland, the group learned how much the sea and canals influence the day-to-day activities of local people and enjoyed an afternoons competitive sailing, with graduation and dinner in the historic capital of the region, Leeuwarden, on the final evening.

Middle East seminar focuses on success in hot climate

The challenges of successful broiler growing in a hot climate was the theme of a Cobb Europe seminar for 40 Middle East customers in the Mzaar mountain resort in Lebanon. Cobb Europe sales and technical director Pelayo Casanovas, the first of eight speakers, spoke about how Cobb serves the global market and how its products are gaining share in the European, Middle East and African region.

Czech group visits headquarters

A visit to the Cobb-Vantress headquarters in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, USA, provided Pavel Visek and Milos Zima (pictured fourth and third from right) from the Xavergen group in the Czech Republic with an insight into how the company is expanding to meet growing demand for the Cobb 500. The visitors discussed with Cobbs senior management group the changing markets around the world and its increasing investment in both research and production facilities, helping to secure the continuing advance in breeder and broiler performance. They also saw US production facilities in Missouri. Mr Truscott commented: Im extremely pleased that our customer in the Czech Republic is achieving 141 chicks per breeder and sees the demand for Cobb broilers increasing so that more breeders are being placed.
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Regional sales manager Mohammed Chail gave an update on the markets within the Middle East, then Cobb geneticist Gosse Veninga looked into what to expect from Cobb products in the future. Technical topics from the Cobb Europe team made up the majority of the presentations with Mark Foote from the UK discussing incubation principles and factors influencing broiler performance. Broiler nutrition was covered by consultant Dr Tony Marangos, while Cobb Europe technical manager Matthew Wilson shared global experiences on growing broilers in a feed efficient and successful way. Cobb Europe veterinarian Dr Andre Derkx talked about disease prevention measures and how to read the signs of infectious viral diseases and vaccination programs, getting the right one for each circumstance. Cobb regional technical manager Mohamad Kallas commented: I am delighted to have so many of our customers with us in Lebanon. The group gained knowledge not only from my colleagues but also from each other, facing similar conditions and challenges in their own markets.

SEMINARS AROUND THE WORLD

Great future forecast for Ukrainian chicken industry

The growing importance of Ukraine as a chicken-producing country was reflected in support for the Cobb Germany two-day seminar in Cherkasy on the banks of the River Dniper. Cherkasy was chosen because the region is the leading producer of broiler meat in Ukraine, and provides the location for one of Europes largest broiler complexes - Myronivski belonging to Mironivskij Hleboprodukt. Opening the event James Truscott, Cobb Germany director, said that in 10 years the Cobb 500 had become the market leader in Ukraine. We are grateful to Cobb Germany it not only supplies excellent service but the product we need, the Cobb 500, commented Maxim Pisarev, Mironivskij Hleboprodukt director of production. Many young people were among the delegates. Their keen interest shows why Ukraine is becoming a leader in supplying quality chicken meat, added Mr Truscott. The country has a great future ahead of it with skilled specialists running the large production facilities.

World technical school proves its value

Forty four participants from 25 countries (pictured below) took part in the 12th world technical school organized by Cobb-Vantress at Siloam Springs, Arkansas, USA. This year for the first time other customers were able to share in some of the live presentations through a webcast which can still be accessed through the companys website. A feature of the 12-day program is the number of case studies presented to the school. We introduced case studies several years ago and they now play a central role in giving the participants real life experience of specific issues on the farm and at the hatchery, said Gail Thorp, Cobb production administrator who organized the event. Weve more than doubled the size of the school since they began and we

Renowned specialists for Cobb Hungarian seminar

More than 80 Cobb customers and other key players from the Hungarian chicken meat industry came together for the two-day seminar near Inrcs, near Budapest, to hear presentations from the world renowned specialists. The event, organised by Cobb Germany at the Bodrogi Kria Hotel, was introduced by director James Truscott and Lszl Ko rsi, sales manager for Hungary, who said the aim was to help customers take full advantage of the Cobb 500 genetic potential. Technical presentations covered the importance of accurate incubation in providing for the chicks temperature needs (consultant Dr Ron Meijerhof), heat stress related to different climatic conditions (Dr Andrea Molnr) and the importance of ventilation in achieving good environmental conditions (Matthew Wilson, Cobb Europe technical manager). Winfridus Bakker, parent stock specialist in the team, explained how to achieve top results during the peak production of a Cobb 500 parent flock, while nutritionist Tony Marangos discussed nutritional strategies for these flocks.

always receive very positive feedback about their value in terms of sharing contacts between customers in different countries as well as learning and updating technical knowledge. The program included visits to the

University of Arkansas, breeder and broiler farms, a hatchery, processing plant and the Tyson Foods Discovery Center as well as presentations by members of the Cobb World Technical Support Team and invited specialists.

NEWS OF OUR PEOPLE

Poultry Federation honor for Jerry Moye Flock survey award for Georges
Jerry Moye, president of Cobb-Vantress, was n a m e d t h e 2 0 11 Industry Leader of the Year by the Poultry Federation during the 52nd Annual Poultry Festival in Ro gers, Arkansas, USA. The award formerly titled Man of the Year has been awarded since 1955 and recognizes the outstanding achievements of poultry and egg executives and their contribution to the industry. Jerry completed in 2010 a three-year term on the Poultry Federations board of directors and is currently serving another term - he is one of the very few directors to serve two consecutive terms as chairman. During his tenure, there was never a job too small or too large for him to tackle and his leadership as chairman is well recognized, says the Federation. Georges Inc, located in Springdale, Arkansas, was the recipient of the US Cobb 500 Sold Flock Survey Award. The award is given to the top producing complex with the highest average total eggs per hen housed. Chance Bryant and Bob Ickes from Cobb presented the award to Ricky Pinkerton, Georges breeder manager. Chance Bryant comments: George's breeder personnel have worked very hard, remained focused on the basics and functioned as a team, making tremendous improvements over the last few years to achieve this performance. We congratulate them on earning this well deserved award."

Joining the team

Roger Vessell, who has been appointed director of world marketing for Cobb-Vantress, brings over 26 years of sales and marketing experience. He has been senior marketing manager for the past five years with Holt Caterpillar at San Antonio, Texas. Previously he was vice president sales and marketing with Columbia 300 in San Antonio and held brand management positions with Rawlings Sporting Goods. He obtained his BSc in social sciences from the University of Missouri Rolla, and is currently completing his MBA from Missouri State University.
Cobb-Vantress, Inc Cobb Europe Ltd Cobb-Vantress Brasil, Ltda Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc Tel: +1 479 524 3166 Tel: +44 1206 835835 Tel: +55 (17)3267 9999 Tel: +63 2 634 3590

Roger and his wife Joan, who have two sons and a daughter, will be relocating to Northwest Arkansas.

studying diet and hybrid interactions in laying hens.

Cesar Coto has joined the

Dr Annsofie Wahlstrm has
been appointed as nutritionist for Cobb Europe to serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and also be involved in nutritional aspects of research. For the past seven years she has been working with Swedens largest feed company, Lantmannen Lantbruk, where she was poultry feed nutritionist and product manager for broiler, turkey and breeder diets. She gained a masters degree in animal science from SLU, the Swedish University of Agriculture, and then a PhD In 1999
Email: info@cobb-vantress.com Email: info@cobb-europe.com Email: cobb.info@cobb-vantress.com

Cobb North America Technical Service Team, responsible for providing technical advice to customers throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Cesar, who has been a technical manager for DSM Nutritional Products in this same region, is a graduate of the University of Arkansas where he completed a PhD in poultry science in 2010 as program associate in the laboratory of Dr Park Waldroup. He began his studies with a five-year program in animal science in his native Costa Rica and after an initial two-year period with DSM resumed his studies at the University of Arkansas, gaining an MS in poultry science and then in agribusiness.

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