EGG HANDLING ▶▶▶
and not allowed to leave their designated zone, thus pre- venting cross contamination. Mr Chongkol: “Crossing zones is only allowed if there is an actual reason for it and not without decontaminating boots and hands.”
Next step In building a brand new hatchery instead of expanding one of the three existing facilities, Betagro was able to set the next step in efficiency. The new hatchery, has taken full ad- vantage of Dutch supplier Pas Reform’s position as a single- source, fully integrated supplier of incubation, climate con- trol and hatchery automation. Fifty-four SmartSetPro setters with a maximum setting capacity of more than six million hen eggs incorporate modular design. The setters are com- plemented by 54 SmartHatchPro hatchers. Hatchery opera- tions are fully supported by Pas Reform’s SmartCenterPro hatchery information system at every level, providing end- to-end real-time monitoring, control and reporting, to en- hance workflow efficiencies and quality control and deliver complete traceability for every hatch. Mr Chongkol on the investment: “Our company invested in an extension of one of our existing hatcheries with SmartPro in 2014. That was our first step in moving from multi stage to single stage in- cubation. When we saw the improvements in efficiency, the new hatchery was planned accordingly.”
Pornthep Chongkol, manager of the Betagro hatchery in Chaibadan checks if the chick is vaccinated correctly.
Point setting by machine gets about 700,000 extra chicks per year in this hatch- ery opposed to manual setting.
10 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 4, 2019
Full integration The new hatchery is the first of the Betagro facilities to pay special attention to egg handling. It chose the fully integrat- ed Prinzen Ovoset Pro machine for setting the eggs point down and the Prinzen trolley loader to lighten the workload of the personnel. Mr Chongkol: “We hatch six days a week, handling more than 300,000 eggs a day. Automation is key, because personnel cannot keep up with those numbers and stay on top of their game at the sametime.” In the end it is all about accuracy and better results. Point setting is extremely important to get the most out of the hatching process. The Chaibadan hatchery is supplied by six breeder farms with 128,000 birds in 16 houses each. About 50% has Cobb birds and the other half are Hubbard flex. The farms are all man- aged from the hatchery, making sure that there is a 13 week difference in bird age between the farms. Parent stock pro- duce until 66 weeks. “This way we guarantee a year round continuous supply of eggs to the hatchery,” says Mr Chong- kol. The eggs are collected by hand, graded and fumigated on farm. After that they are delivered on plastic trays per 30 to the hatchery. “In the old days we would transfer and set the eggs by hand, managing about 3,500 eggs per person per hour. With two Ovoset machines we manage 60,000 eggs per hour. On top of that there is more quality too,” Mr Chongkol says. Data shows that setting by hand has a failure percentage of 5%,
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
