INTERVIEW ▶▶▶
welfare by supermarkets. Internationally the main reason is better performance. That said, the overall picture is diverse.” Langen knows that early feeding is not the only solution to improve results out of the hatchery. “If a hatchery has all the boxes ticked, sources good hatching eggs, is in control of the hatchery management, has a good hatching window, the ef- fect on performance of early feeding will not be enormous. However, when you don’t have a prime breeder flock or if you encounter suboptimal conditions elsewhere, Smart Start of- fers clear advantages. In day to day operations we see many of our customers remodelling part of their capacity to Smart Start to cater to individual customers and hatch certain eggs. It is a great tool in any hatchery, but not an ‘improve all’ fix for every hatchery.”
Towards full connectivity “As said, not all hatcheries are at the same point of their jour- ney in improving their operation. Sometimes we have to start with helping our customers picking the low hanging fruit. Moving from excel files to digital reporting of the hatchery processes, as we do with our Smart Center Pro hatchery infor- mation system that delivers precise, consistent process con- trol, analysis and reporting for every level of hatchery opera- tions.” Langen envisions the next big leap for hatcheries to be full connectivity. “If that is realised, we could move to the next
level as well, offering hatching as a service. We as a company and the industry as a whole isn’t there yet, but I can imagine a future where we service the whole process and charge the customer per day old chick. Where we are at now is that we offer a fixed price contract for spare parts, incubation support and maintenance, using big data to monitor and service our machines, giving our customer peace of mind and no risk of discontinuity of his process.” When it comes to the more holistic view on the future of Pas Reform, Langen is optimistic. “2018 was a good year for us, the market conditions were favourable and many companies invested heavily. We outperformed the market, which makes me believe that our strategy of innovations, total hatchery solutions and service works well. Our vision for the future has a three year plan in which we target growth within a stable market. That sets our challenge, any extra growth of the mar- ket, which to be honest is a realistic scenario, is nice to have.” He continues: “Our focus will be on the hatchery and the pro- cesses which will make the difference there. One could ven- ture out beyond that, but there is still a lot to improve at the core. Even after 100 years of designing hatcheries, we are still surprised by mother nature, the process of embryo develop- ment and physical variation itself. Gerrit Pas set the golden standard 100 years ago and we are continuously improving that golden standard.”
Getting to grips with big data is a challenge Pas Reform took on from the 2000’s onwards. Its Smart Center Pro hatchery in- formation sys- tem delivers precise, consist- ent process con- trol, analysis and reporting for every level of hatchery opera- tions.
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2019
11
PHOTO: ILSE BEKKER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
