Perdue Farms adopts NestBorn on-farm hatching concept

28-01 | |
Since the official launch of NestBorn in 2018, chicks have been hatched on-farm with the concept in more than 10 European countries. Photo: Nestborn
Since the official launch of NestBorn in 2018, chicks have been hatched on-farm with the concept in more than 10 European countries. Photo: Nestborn

Perdue Farms, a family-owned 4th-generation US food and agricultural company, has decided to incorporate the NestBorn on-farm hatching concept  into their broiler production and supply chain.

The adoption of this innovative and future-proof approach to hatch day-old chicks in broiler barns – instead of in hatcheries – fits into the company’s belief in responsible food and agriculture, and is aligned with its long-standing commitments towards animal care and No Antibiotics Ever.

After more than a year of demonstration and validation in a “deep litter” context, Perdue Farms and NestBorn have agreed – in a preferred partnership context – to further deploy the NestBorn on-farm hatching solution. In its first phase, 2 state-of-the-art NestBorn Egg Placing Machines – constructed and supported by automation expert Viscon – will be deployed in the US, significantly increasing the number of on-farm hatched chicks in Perdue’s operations.

An asset for broiler operations

“In our mission to responsibly raise animals for food, we are always looking for continuous improvement of animal welfare,” said Bruce Stewart Brown, chief science officer for Perdue Farms. “A few years ago, we started to investigate the feasibility and potential benefit of on-farm hatching in our operations. We started taking pre-incubated eggs to broiler barns instead of using the hatcher. We concluded that NestBorn is an additional asset for our broiler operations that will help further our efforts around the highest animal care and in our commitment to No Antibiotics Ever.”

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Brockötter
Fabian Brockötter Editor in Chief, Poultry World