In your opinion, why should customers in the SSA region choose to buy Ross?
The Ross® 308 satisfies the demands of customers who require a bird that performs consistently well and has the versatility, robustness and cardiovascular strength to meet a broad range
of end-product requirements and environments. The Ross 308 is the leading broiler worldwide, with its unparalleled and renowned performance in both open and closed-housing environments. Our customers across the SSA region choose Ross because it meets the requirements they are looking for in a bird, specifically in FCR and yield, which in turn maximizes their profit, making Ross the breed of choice in the region, in turn, providing the customer with the best return on their investment.
Can you tell us a little more about the advantages of the Ross breed?
Across the SSA region, the Ross 308 has advantages in both breeder and broiler performance. For example, the Ross 308 breeder is performing exceptionally well, steady gains in hatching egg (HE) output, and hatchability have delivered on average an additional 15–20 chicks over the competitor and in some cases the difference is even greater. What does this mean?…well for a customer processing 1 million broilers a week this means 35,000 less parent stock are required to produce the same number of broilers, which is a big saving in itself. This also means that less breeder feed is required, which is another extra saving, especially since feed costs are high nowadays. If we check the numbers, it would mean 2,000 tonnes less breeder feed equates to a saving of approximately $900,000 on feed alone.
Faster growth rate, better livability and carcass yield deliver the most meat per kg at the lowest cost of production. Recent regional field and trial results demonstrate well this performance and the advantages over our competitors. Based on TMEA field results, the Ross 308 broiler performance shows a minimum of:
It is also worth mentioning the year on year continuous improvements being delivered through the genetics pipeline – the last 5 years have delivered:
How do you and your team support your customers across the region?
We have a very talented multi-cultural customer support team who live and work in the region, and also speak the local language, so we have a good understanding of the challenges our customers face. We also have the support of International Specialists and the Aviagen R&D department so our customers can have confidence in the Ross brand. We share our experience and keep our distributors up-to-date on the latest information and technologies at local seminars and workshops.
Ross also provides the best literature portfolio which includes parent stock and broiler management and training handbooks, performance objectives and nutrition specifications. Specific advice is also provided through the ‘How To’ series, Best Practices, and Hatchery Tip publications, and all information is available on the Aviagen website. Aviagen also recently released its global flock management app for Ross customers. The app offers quick and easy access to PS and broiler data, along with useful reference and monitoring tools, such as a date finder, EPEF calculator and a scoring tool. In addition to this, we have also recently launched our podcast series “The Eggspert View”, which provides information on our key technical topics and key information from around the region. Subscribe now to our podcast on Spotify.