This article first appeared in the innovation supplement to Poultry Business, published in June 2026
The UK poultry sector is operating in an increasingly complex environment – balancing rising demand for chicken meat, pressure on labour availability, and the need for more sustainable production systems. Within this context, gender sorting at hatchery level is emerging as a critical technology to improve efficiency, predictability and resource utilisation across the value chain.
Broiler gender sorting is a global trend
Across the global poultry industry, gender sorting is gaining momentum as producers seek to optimise performance and address structural challenges. Demand for poultry meat continues to increase, placing pressure on the industry to improve efficiency at every stage of production. Today, it is estimated that more than 25% of global broiler production already involves some level of gender sorting.
Traditionally, the identification of male and female day-old chicks has relied on manual feather-sexing techniques. While widely used, this process is highly labour-dependent and inherently variable. Accuracy depends on operator skill, fatigue and training level, and in practice it is common to see gender sorting accuracy drop to around 85% over time.
Industry experts now recognise automated gender sorting as a key technological advancement, enabling more consistent performance while supporting the broader transformation of poultry production towards greater efficiency and sustainability. As a result, gender sorting is no longer a niche practice but is progressively becoming a standard component of modern hatchery operations worldwide.
More meat with the same resources
One of the most significant advantages of gender sorting lies in its ability to improve resource efficiency throughout the production chain.
Male and female broilers have different growth rates, body composition and nutritional requirements. In mixed flocks, producers must apply a single feeding programme, which inevitably leads to females being overfed and males underfed. This imbalance limits overall performance and increases inefficiencies.
By separating sexes at hatch, producers can implement gender-specific nutrition and management programmes tailored to each group’s needs. This allows for improved growth rates, better feed conversion ratios (FCR), and reduced nutrient waste.
Gender sorting also plays a key role in improving flock uniformity—an essential requirement for modern processing plants. More uniform flocks result in better processing performance, fewer downgrades and improved yield consistency. This is particularly relevant in the UK market, where retailers demand tight carcass weight specifications and portion uniformity.
When male and female birds are reared separately and managed according to their biological potential, differentiated target weights can be achieved more efficiently. In practice, gender-sorted flocks can deliver between 2% and 8% more meat per square metre compared with as-hatched flocks, while also improving liveability and production consistency.
Genesys enables industrial-scale gender sorting
While the benefits of gender sorting are well established, large-scale implementation has historically been constrained by labour availability and process limitations. This is where automated systems such as Ceva’s Genesys represent a step-change for hatchery operations.
Manual sorting capacity is typically limited to around 2,500 chicks per hour per operator and requires large teams in high-capacity hatcheries. In the context of ongoing labour shortages in UK agriculture, maintaining such operations is increasingly challenging.
Genesys addresses these constraints by automating gender sorting through advanced imaging technology and algorithm-based identification. The system delivers consistent accuracy levels above 97%, significantly reducing the variability associated with manual processes.
Designed for modern hatchery environments, Genesys combines high throughput with a compact, modular footprint, allowing easy integration into existing chick processing layouts. Its scalable design makes it particularly well suited to high-volume hatcheries, sorting 50,000 broiler chicks per hour per module.
By replacing a labour-intensive and variable process with a standardised, high-performance system, Genesys allows hatcheries to maintain throughput, improve consistency and reduce dependence on skilled labour—an important advantage in today’s operating environment.
For UK poultry producers, gender sorting is rapidly evolving from an optional practice into a strategic necessity. Faced with increasing demand, labour constraints and sustainability expectations, the industry must continue to improve efficiency without expanding resource use.
Automated gender sorting technologies provide a practical and scalable solution to these challenges. By enabling more precise resource utilisation and supporting industrial-scale hatchery operations, systems such as Genesys are helping to modernise poultry production.
In a competitive and demanding market, adopting such innovations will be key to maintaining performance, meeting customer expectations and ensuring the long-term sustainability of UK poultry production.