September 3, 2013

Tegel Foods Ltd. has recently constructed a brand new broiler hatchery in Christchurch and Petersime was selected as the supplier of incubators and HVAC equipment via distributor UPEC.

The new hatchery for chicken broilers has a total yearly setting capacity of 30 million chicken eggs, obtained with 30 BioStreamer^™ 12S incubators and 15 BioStreamer^™ 4H hatchers. On top of that, some setters and hatchers for turkeys have also been installed.

Tegel Foods is proud to be amongst the poultry producers with the lowest feed conversion ratios (FCRs) in the world. The company is also working to bring the average FCR of its birds further down from 1.5. One of the methods to achieve this is good hatchery management.

"Good feed conversion ratios of broilers start with a beneficial development of the embryos in the egg," says Leonard Hawley, Hatcheries Manager at Tegel Foods. "Embryo-Response Incubation^™ is the method of choice to monitor and control this vital aspect of hatchery management."

Tegel Foods Ltd. is the number one poultry producer in New Zealand. It runs three fully integrated production units in Auckland, New Plymouth, and Christchurch that include feed mills, breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, and processing plants. The company processes 70,000 tonnes per year and employs 1,900 people. Besides chicken, Tegel also produces turkey meat, holding over 90% of the New Zealand turkey market.

Petersime is the world's leading supplier of incubators and hatcheries. Headquartered in Belgium, it has a worldwide network of agents and distributors in over 60 countries.