Setters and hatchers, 54 in total, are installed by Pas Reform.
opposed to 0.3% by the machine. About 20% of the wrongly set eggs will not hatch, 80% will result in less vital chicks. “It is all about the numbers, with over 100,000,000 eggs a year the difference between the machine and by hand is 3.7%, of which 20% is a loss. Small percentages add up to 740,000 chicks as a potential loss/win. On top of that we keep our staff happy too.” The current hatching percentage is 84%.
Labour intensive
Automation in egg setting and also in the transfer room, where candling and selection is also automated, keep the number of people involved in the hatchery low. Mr Chong- kol: “That said, the work in the chick room is still pretty la- bour intensive. About 60% of all our staff is employed there. That is mainly due to the fact that we separate the male and female birds and vaccinate every chick by hand as well as with spray vaccination. On top of that, all our birds are re- checked as a matter of quality control, before they leave to the broiler farms. Vaccination failure is not an option and if we see mistakes, the quality control station will evaluate the individual person at the vaccination station.” Chick sexing is done for better results on the broiler farm level. Female chicks grow to 2.2 kilo’s in 42 days, male chicks to 2.8 kilo’s in 48 days. That gives better uniformity at the processing facility and thus better processing efficiency. With Betagro being a fully integrated company, from parent stock until finished products under its own brand name in the supermarket, every step in the production process is important. Mr Chongkol: “Our hatchery process is probably the most critical step in the whole production process, but in the end it is all about all links in the supply chain working together.”
Most of the staff work in the chick room, sexing and vaccination is still pretty la- bour intensive.
One person per Prinzen Ovoset Pro can process 30,000 eggs per hour.
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