Feed conversion is indeed the aim of the game (i.e. turning livestock feed into household food) – but let’s remember it’s a metric. And metrics are only as good as their underlying processes.
Feed conversion is an average. It’s an indicator of the entire picture, based on a randomly assorted cohort of representatives. A way of saying, “…if these 100 chicks meet this mark – then chances are that overall we must be there, or thereabouts.”
And then, you have the distribution. By admission, there is variation in any organic collective. Even as tightly engineered as birds can get…Cobb 500 included…you can’t take away from nature’s individuality.
Some birds will be stronger, weaker, bigger, small etc. than their peers. Every bird is different.We’ll never change that.
Nor is the aim of the game to change that. But rather to encourage as many as conceivably possible to fall within ‘goal’. And this comes within standardising and monitoring. Without the later, we have no confidence that the former is achieved.
Our baseline for results in farming is 1st having that “…auditing kinda mentality”. Write down what you do and do what you write down to prove it.
In the case of broiler farming and layer farming alike, performance uniformity is inextricably linked to body weight.
Typically, if you can control body weight, you will control the outcome of poultry farming. Ok, not quite so simplistic an equation, but bodyweight sure is the driving force and most predictive indicator of your poultry successes.
So, nail the process and perfect the outcome. It’s really as simple as that.
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