Elanco & Rosehill Layer Conference

Elanco & Rosehill Layer Conference was held at the Macdonald Hill Valley hotel on Thursday 19^th September and was very well attended by a broad range of the layer industry. We were fortunate to have Steve Carlyle and his team at Country Fresh Pullets in attendance, Olivia Potter and a great team of people from Potters Poulty and Matthew Green with his team at Wot-A-Pullet. We were also very grateful to have Graham Fuller representing Fridays, Charles Mcleod of Humphries Feed & Pullets and many members of Noble, David Davies and Co, K. Fresh attending with a great attendance from independent egg producers.

The Subjects covered in order of presentation were  as follows;

Dave Heckman of Elanco gave a very resonant talk based around his background in farming based on the dangers of complacency using an analogy of when his family invested in a new barn but failed to insure the new building against extreme weather. Inevitably the extreme weather struck destroying the building and that lay the foundation for a speech entitled “The 3 R’s – Relentless, risk, uRgency”.

Relentless referred to the unstopping progress of the food sector in seeking produce food that is needed to be safe and available in ever greater quantities. It also was brought back to the importance of our industry driving hard and doubling down our efforts to do everything within our power to improve, learn and adhere to the best practises in vaccination, biosecurity and producing a valuable, safe source of nutrition for the British population.

Risk covered the dangers of failure to uphold the high standard which we have set ourselves in food production. The danger of failing to meet these standards held heavy implications in terms of how a business can be affected in terms of reputation and economic effects and on a broader level how a food is perceived which will affect us all.

uRgencgy was a fascinating insight into the fluid nature of communications throughout society and not just media outlets. Increasingly the world we live in the voice of outspoken members of society can be heard without necessarily there being evidence to support an opinion. Social media has created a soundboard and it is our responsibility to avoid allowing any fuel for the fire to the detractors of our industry by continuing to produce safe, high welfare food.

Mark Williams of the British Egg Industry Council present an excellent overview of the work the Lion Code is doing to keep pace with the ever changing landscape of egg production. Following an increase in Europe of reported salmonella cases the Council have taken steps to increase sampling of the layers sites within the UK and to reinforce the importance of Bio-Security, Rodent Control and vaccination.

The level of adherence that the UK has demonstrated to the LION code has played a key part in making us the safest producers of eggs within Europe and Mark emphasised the importance on continuing to carry out well executed vaccinations with the best possible vaccines,  robust measures that are in place surrounding suspected positive tests and current trial work being done on the protection programs.

The talk was completed with the work the Lion code are doing to protect the UK industry from imports and the lower tariffs being discussed by the UK government. It was evident from Mark’s words that the industry is always striving to not only be good enough, but to continue to provide the very safest eggs available.

David Hodson of Rosehill Agricultural Trading gave a presentation based around the work carried out nationwide in the perfection of the mass application of live vaccine that has been carried out with the major pullet rearers and egg producers. For all new rearing sites David Hodson Snr. & Jnr. carry out on site training, equipping and teaching to ensure that new members of the industry can effectively protect the birds by correctly applying live vaccine.

The talk opened with a description of the what a “live vaccine” is which was explained as a disease causing pathogen which is weakened to produce an immune response yet will not revert to virulence and cause field strain disease issues. The “live” element of the vaccine should not be taken for granted though as it was explained that exposure of the vaccine to poor storage conditions, cleaning chemicals such as chlorine or acid, heavy minerals or poor application would substantially negatively effect the immune response in the bird

Following on David covered the lessons learned by Rosehill from the Gumboro crisis of the 80’s and the lessons that it taught the industry about the correct administration of live vaccine. David Hodson Snr. Often cites that the Gumboro taught a great deal about what we did not understand about water vaccinations and those lessons have helped shape the methods used today to give excellent protection to UK flocks. Trial work on line priming, water restriction timing and water stabilisers was presented in a step by step explanation of the Rosehill methods.

The talk was completed with an explanation of how important every step is of vaccination to ensure that producers get the very best out of their birds, their business and for the industry as a whole.

Kim Malley of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) provided a very interesting insight into what is important current to the UK consumer when it comes to food choices. The consumption of poultry products has been on an upward trajectory and Kim explained that convenience, cost and healthiness were driving factors in the UK populations food choices. Looking at the work that can be done to increase the awareness of what the layer industry produces Kim went onto explain that many people decide what they will buy when in the store and as such it is important to promote our goods at all levels.

Following the conference an evening meal was held which provided the opportunity for the hard working members of the pullet rearing and laying industries to catch up and enjoy each others company.

We would like to thank everyone for their attendance and see you again next year.