NUTRITION ▶▶▶
At the poultry facilities at MRC, zootechnical, palatability and digestibility trials are being done.
management period, an adaptation period, a fasting period, a testing period of the feed, followed by a fasting period and the collection of faeces and feed residues. A great thing is that the barns are designed to easily collect the faeces. Ana- lysing the chicken droppings is important to study the effec- tivity of an enzyme for example,” explains Lepauvre.
From MRC to real farmers “Everything is very much controlled with a great precision on feed and water intake. We test different feed formulations and existing product at different levels. With the increasing use of products there is need to test new solutions and exist- ing materials to see how they behave next to each other in one feed formulation. In addition, we also test different kinds
of raw materials from different countries and/or customers. The MRC is a great way to learn how feed additives behave in farm conditions and to learn what dosage is needed to get the best result, as in developing a formulation matrix. “After the testing at our own facilities we also gather data from real farmers when they start using our products. We work with a group of poultry farmers for this.” The latest investments in the MRC were focused on revamping the dairy cow building. The next steps will be focused on modernising the poultry units. “They work well for our trials, but we want to add a free range poultry system to look at what is happening in the market, for example, free range and organic farming are in- creasing, which is also reflected in the trials we will do in the future,” Lepauvre concludes.
Baptiste Lepauvre: “After the testing at our own facilities we also gather data from real farmers when they start using our products. We work with a group of poultry farmers for this.”
32 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2019
Like for all farms at MRC, the poultry facilities function like a commercial farm. However, the barns are designed a bit different than real life farms, as in having more pens per building.
PHOTO: EMMY KOELEMAN
PHOTO: FRED MOURAUD
PHOTO: FRED MOURAUD
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
