Fifty industry specialists from all over the world recently spent two weeks sharing best practices with each other, touring poultry facilities, attending classes together and sharing meals, all as part of the 2016 World Technical School.
Organized by Cobb-Vantress and held in Arkansas, USA, the school drew participants from 26 countries and included hands-on workshops on farms, hatcheries and in the laboratory.
“The school remains the best training tool I’ve ever witnessed in our industry, and our distributors and customers very much look forward to their chance to attend,” said Cobb world technical support team director, Dr Steve Bolden. “The relationships made with others across the world can be extremely valuable and last a lifetime.”
The two-week programme included visits to a broiler farm, a parent stock farm and processing plant, and a laboratory at the University of Arkansas. The classroom sessions featured presentations by members of the support team covering all aspects of poultry meat production.
“In a small group with so many countries represented we are able to share our experiences and expand our minds to look at the poultry business globally, not just from within our own region,” said Brazilian nutritionist, Mauricio Mazurek.
“It’s been an amazing two weeks,” added head of operations in Kenya for KENCHIC, Jim Tozer. “It was great to meet the Cobb global technical team as well as people from other parts of the world and appreciate their issues and opportunities.”
RCL foods production manager in South Africa, Michael Nhlabathi, added: “I met customers from countries like Brazil and learned practical information on how we can, for instance, improve our biosecurity programmes. This is very valuable to us.”
Headline image shows delegates taking part in a leadership training session at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
