A partnership approach developed over 25 years saw leading Darlington broiler grower Richard Bowes celebrate his 150th crop in 2022, having worked alongside pig and poultry compound feed manufacturer ABN throughout this period.
Consistency of feed supply, individual attention to detail and the ability to adapt to changing industry requirements have been crucial to Mr Bowes relationship with ABN, and has been the key to continued high performance figures across his crops, resulting in multiple award successes.
Gold Award
A significant recent award success for Mr Bowes, achieved with the support of ABN, came when he rose to the challenge set by Aviagen back in 2019, when it first raised the bar for entry to its Ross Club, recognising the UK’s top broiler growers.
The qualifying entry level was initially raised to a European Performance Efficiency Factor (EPEF) of 420 and above, up from 400, and has subsequently been lifted to 440 in June 2022.
EPEF is an equation used to measure the technical performance of a broiler flock and takes into consideration the feed conversion ratio (FCR), liveability (life expectancy), live weight and slaughter age of the bird.
Three consecutive crops over the 420-entry point in 2020 saw Mr Bowes achieve the Aviagen Gold Award, and he narrowly missed out in 2021 with crops raised to an EPEF of 413, 414 and 422. This year performance remains high as he strives for the new Ross Club entry requirement.
“Throughout the crops over 2020 and 2021, it was significant that our Feed Conversation Ratio (FCR) stayed consistently good, ranging between 1.52 to 1.63, and again this is very much reliant on the continued and valued input and advice from ABN,” says Mr Bowes.
With Aviagen now lifting the EPEF entry requirement further this year, this represents the next step for Mr Bowes as he works with ABN to improve feed programmes to drive those performance figures.
First crop
It all started back in 1997, when Mr Bowes took the decision to move away from the sow breeding business established by his father, ahead of the looming sow stall ban that resulted in cheaper Dutch, Danish and German pig meat flooding the UK market.
“We decided it was time for a change of tack and put in the investment to build the chicken house, seeing it completed by March 1997,” says Mr Bowes. “We had our first crop on the 9th of September 1997, and have not looked back since, now on our 153rd crop 25 years on.”
Less labour intensive than the pig enterprise, the broiler business was initially managed by Mr Bowes alongside his parents and brother. When his father passed away, Richard and his brother worked in partnership up until the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in 2001.
At this time, Richard’s brother decided to move away from the family business for new opportunities, and now has a 150 strong suckler herd on a rented neighbouring farm, while Richard continued with the broiler enterprise, operating as a sole trader since 2002.
“In some ways the FMD outbreak actually worked in our favour, as this cemented our relationship with the team at ABN, as I relied more heavily on their input and support as a sole trader,” explains Mr Bowes.
“I have worked with Sharon Smart (ABN national lead account manager) from day one, and more recently have developed a good and close working relationship with my ABN account manager Will Reckitt,” he adds.
Mr Bowes continues, “The working relationship across all the ABN teams over the years has, as far as I am concerned, been brilliant. From the customer services team, through to the wagon drivers, the service is always good, they are as helpful as anything.
“The ordering system is also good, it’s usually pre-ordered and is just a seamless experience quite honestly.”
High performance figures
Of course central to the relationship is achieving that continued high performance, and this is where Will Reckitt plays a vital hands-on role, helping to manage the crops of 31,000 birds in the 1,572 sqm house.
“One of the best things about working with Richard is that he’s got the smaller site which allows him to give that personal attention to detail which other’s can’t always devote the time to. This really lets him hammer home those high-performance figures,” says Will.
With a formula that has remained much the same since Mr Bowes entered into broilers, attention to detail and subtle adjustments are key.
Will adds, “Working with customers with long partnerships means we can really build that level of trust, meaning we can work together to make sure we get the best solution, and come up with ideas that wouldn’t be possible with short term partnerships.
“From Richard’s perspective, we have helped introduce several new measures, such as a coccidiostat rotation through the seasons to help prevent coccidiosis while also helping avoid resistance to the coccidiostat product. We have also introduced whole wheat additions to help gut health, and have been instrumental in helping with the move away from fishmeal for sustainability reasons, without impacting on performance,” he continues.
Multiple awards
The previous Ross Club successes over the years are just some of the many accolades achieved by Mr Bowes over the last quarter of a century, and with the bar raised higher again this year, he continues achieving those high-performance figures into 2022.
Mr Bowes concludes, “We’ve been getting awards on this site since we first started, so it’s a habit I find hard to break quite honestly! But joking aside, it really has been a combined effort over these last 25 years.”
