Signing the collaboration agreement ongenomic research with Hendrix Genetics.

His work centered around breeding a broilerto perform in the Indian environment.

INSIDECobb history 1991 - 2016: Cobb500 becomesworld’s most popular broiler breeder 2 and 3

Jerry Moye: After 10 years as president,what I’ll miss most 4 and 5

Global food vision at Zimbabwe conference 6

Chinese tech school highlights geneticimprovements 7

Dr Genda Lal Jain looks back on 36 years atVenco research farm 8

Brazilian seminars and hosting Galo Mineirodinner 9

Support for Special Olympics in US 10

Cobb Champion awards in CIS countries 10

First chicks from new Cobb Tong Xingproject in China 11

Strengthening US team 12

Surprise visitor at SPACE show in France 12

Cobb500: The last 25 yearsPages 2 and 3

Retirement presentation toDr Jain in India Page 8

ISSUE 4 | AUTUMN 2016

Jerry Moye with former Cobb presidentsTony Barnes (second left) and James Bell(right) along with John Hardiman.

The US research team was led for almost 30years by Dr John Hardiman, who wasconsistently achieving year-on-year gains inwhat were becoming the key areas - feedefficiency and meat yield.“When we first brought the bird in to the US,

we knew about growth rate and we knew thatmeat yield was important too - that was whywe wanted access to the Cobb500 lines fromthe UK. But It was only after the new Cobb-Vantress company took shape that we reallystarted to devote more resources to pure feedconversion selection,” he said in 2010. “If we hadn't taken that step then, we would

have been too late. But we did start verystrongly and a lot of the credit goes to TerryWing for bringing in new technology foranalyzing and measuring feed conversion, andwe continued to select for meat yield,particularly breast meat. “We also asked ourselves - ‘Can we do all

this and still manage to hold hatchability andbe able to get more eggs per hen each year?’That was a success story, too. We've averaged

about an egg a year over the past 20 years.”As the new millennium dawned, the

biotechnologies were beginning to impactanimal breeding. The ability to detectdifferences in the genome of individual birdsbegan giving the geneticists a new tool tomake selections with improved accuracy.Dr Mitch Abrahamsen, who succeeded

Dr Hardiman in 2010, saw the full potential ofgenomics to bring new benefits to thebreeding programme. Asked in 2013 to saywhat excited him most about the newopportunities, he replied: ‘Making progress onthings that have been fairly difficult to selectfor in the past – livability, robustness andessentially the ability to have your productperform well in lots of different environments.That’s really the holy grail of what we arelooking for with our investment in newtechnology.’This investment extended into collaboration

with some 20 research organizations acrossthe world including a long-term partnershipon genomics with Hendrix Genetics and a

Cobb History

Cobb entered the 1990s in a mood of confidence that proved to be well founded.The Cobb500 broiler breeder, brought to the United States from the UK in the1980s, was proving to be a success not just in North America but in marketsaround the world.

We really started todevote moreresources to purefeed conversionselection.

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The last 25 years - 1991 to 2016:Cobb500 becomes world’s mostpopular broiler breeder“

3

Clockwise from top left on page 2: Terry Wing, a keyfigure in improving feed conversion; the redevelopedHerveld research farm in the Netherlands; Jerry Moyeat the Cobb Tong Xing grand opening; James Bellreceives award for Cobb displaying 50 years at IPPE;The first Cobb500 chicks arriving in China in 1994 -en route to Conghua Breeder Farm, and Mark Glaveyand Chet Hobart pictured on the farm; majorinvestment in new production and laboratory facilitiesin Brazil.

project with the Roslin Institute in Scotland ongenome ‘biobanking’ to preserve individualgenetic lines.Over the past 25 years, Cobb built two new

pedigree farms in the US, and following thepurchase of the Hybro breed from Hendrixdoubled the size of the Herveld complex in theNetherlands. The gene pool was further widened by the

purchase of the Avian lines, the Kabir traditionalcolored lines and most recently HeritageBreeders in 2014. In addition a partnership withthe French breeding company Sasso providedproducts for slow growing niche markets.New Cobb products were introduced - the

Cobb700 for high breast meat yield in 2001,followed by the Cobb Avian48 for enhancedbreeder performance in 2004. To help customers take full advantage of the

advancing genetics James Bell, president ofCobb from 1995 - 2006, set up a WorldTechnical Support Team that has grown toinclude all aspects of chicken production and istoday one of the most highly respected sourcesof global expertise. New parent hatcheries in Georgia, Arkansas

and Tennessee, coupled with major expansionin the grandparent production in Brazil and theUK, provide breeding stock for the globalnetwork of more than 60 distributors sellingCobb products to over 120 countries. Brazil has been a particular success story.

The Cobb500 was introduced into the country in1986 and its growing popularity led to a jointventure with Globoaves and Frango Sertanejo in1995. As the Brazilian market increased, thecompany became wholly owned by Cobb-Vantress and has continued to expand to meetdemand across South America. Today the

Cobb500 is the dominant breed in the world’ssecond largest chicken producing nation. Several years ago the Brazilian grandparent

production facilities took their first stepstowards recognition for ‘compartment status’under global trade regulations. The UK facilities have gone one stage further

in achieving full ‘GB enhanced compartmentstatus’ this year - the most stringentrequirements for any such operation. This goesbeyond the rules of the EU compartmentstandard and guidelines of the World HealthOrganisation (OIE), meaning that customerscan rely on Cobb to maintain product supply intimes of a UK disease outbreak.In recent years one of the most ambitious

projects has been in China where in 2013Cobb president Jerry Moye signed a jointventure agreement with integrated producerHubei Tong Xing that made the company thefirst primary broiler breeder to invest inproduction facilities in the country. Thegrandparent farm and hatchery facilities atSuizhou in Hubei province, west of Shanghai,are now producing parent stock with the firstchicks hatched in October. The celebrations for the first ‘100 years of

Cobb’ began at the worldwide distributorconference last autumn at Boston, taking thecompany back to its origins in Massachusetts.They continue this month at the EuroTier Showat Hanover, Germany, which takes place withina few days of the November 20 date whenRobert C. Cobb senior bought the Old PickardFarm at Concord, Littleton, with a burningambition to breed chickens. He would surelyhave been proud of the legacy he created -and the Cobb500 that is today the world’s mostpopular broiler breeder.

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Without question Europe was the biggestchallenge we faced, shortly before I tookover was when Tesco had told their suppliersof chicken meat that for them Cobb was nota suitable breed to be using. That trickledacross quite a bit of Europe, so we werefacing a really difficult time. We had to takestock of what we were doing and I think wedid a great job. Absolutely that was probablythe biggest opportunity we had at the time.Our business was very healthy in theAmericas, but that wasn’t the case in Europe.

Did that lead to a change in the breedingprogram for the European environment?We accepted the fact that a good portion ofthe issue was genetic and, yes, we got muchmore aggressive in looking at the walkingcapabilities, the gaits of our birds and putsome added pressure on leg strength andskeletal strength and in general it paid off.We also made some changes in lines, butbasically most of it was through some re-assessment of the genetic program andsome changes in the selection priorities.

And did that impact on the bird globally or juston the product for the European market?As you well know, we sell the Cobb 500around the world and at that time all thepedigree operations and the R and Dfacilities were based in the United States,so everything we were doing in improving legstrength impacted on all our birds across theworld.

If you look at how the company has grownover the last 10 or 15 years, what do you seeas the key ingredients to that success?I think there are several. Certainly we areblessed with some very good genetics.The base lines we started with in the 70s,80s, 90s, the traditional Cobb lines areexcellent chicken lines and we have addedsome other genetics with the purchase ofAvian, Hybro and Heritage lines. So we have a great stable of genetics

which gives us an opportunity to mix andmatch, and change directions to wherespecific products might need to go in themarket place.

Secondly, without question, we have agreat group of people at Cobb, including ourdistributors that represent us well across theworld. They do a fantastic job and have stuckwith us over the years.

What do you think has been your singlegreatest achievement? What might be yourlegacy for the future?Well, I really don’t like that word legacy, Idon’t think there is anything I’ve done thatwouldn’t have been done by other verycapable people, but the biggest achievementI think we’ve made is in addressingaggressively the Europe situation. I know ourdistributors would have liked to have seenthings turn much more rapidly, butunfortunately in genetics it’s never quick andwe invested in Hybro and got back tobreeding in the European market place.We have transitioned across themanagement team and fortunately we havedeveloped a lot of good young people thathave helped us sustain the business, and weare now starting to see that come to fruition.

What about the Asian market? That really hasbeen quite a success in recent years -breaking into China and setting up anoperation there.Something that has been important I do thinkis the Chinese investment, and the newventure we’re starting in New Zealand shouldposition us in the future to really attack theAsian market very differently than we did, sayin 2006, when I started as president. The market has been very good to us over

time, China is still an opportunity. I don’t thinkwe can quite say yet that China is a clear

Interview with Jerry Moye

JERRY MOYE is retiring at the end of this year after 10 years as president ofCobb-Vantress. Roger Ranson took the opportunity to ask for his reflections onhis presidency, starting with what he saw as his biggest challenge in 2007.

After 10 years as president -‘No question! What I’ll missmost are the people’

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success because it is a very difficult marketto do business in. The government is verychallenging and the way they deal withimportations and things like this.

You mentioned New Zealand….What actuallyis happening there?The plan is for the investment in a greatgrandparent farm and also a hatchery whichwill produce grandparents primarily for thesoutheast Asia region. I am very excitedabout that and hopeful before the end of thisyear we will start breaking ground and havegrandparents on the ground by the thirdquarter of 2017.

There must have been somedisappointments. Would you like to share withus any of things you’ve not been able tomake bigger progress on during the last 10years?Yes, I would say that clearly the number onefrustration rather than disappointment hasbeen our inability to really get a strongfoothold in what I label as the large birdsegment here in the US. The US marketplace is very different from the rest of theworld. Today 45 percent of our broilers aregreater than three and a half kilos and it hasbeen a very rapidly growing segment overthe last five or six years. Unfortunately our Cobb700 has really

never got a foothold in that market. Our targetvery simply is that we think we ought to have50 percent of the market, and however youlook at it we have come nowhere near that.I really wish that we had been much morecompetitive than we seem to have been tothis point.

What about the other sector, the slowgrowing. Are there any plans to launch aproduct at that particular market?The simple answer to that is yes. I don’t thinkthere is any question that Cobb has to re-evaluate how we have been managing ourprocesses in the welfare segment becausewe are increasingly finding while peoplelabel it as slow growing, there is much morein terms of the behaviors of the birds that’simportant to them other than just slowgrowing. I think we have a nice opportunity now with

our good friends at Hendrix Genetics. Theyrecently announced they have acquired amajority share of Sasso and I am hopeful thatwe will be able to take our joint developmentagreement and include the Sasso program inthat. They have a good foundation and I thinkboth Hendrix and Cobb have some piecesthat could add to the mix.

Looking over your 10 years as president isthere one memory, one moment that youwould cherish for the future?That is a tough one to answer and you knowthe simple answer is the opportunity to bepresident of this company. I have worked forother companies in my career, and while atCobb, I've held different job titles, but to beable to lead this group as president has beenspecial because they have given me theirsupport. You don't ever lead people withouttheir willingness to follow. That withoutquestion is the number one thing for me.

What do you think you will miss most whenyou leave Cobb at the end of the year?There is no question what I am going to miss

is the people. You go to a meeting like out inZimbabwe and while I don’t see all thosepeople all that frequently, some of them Ispend a good bit of time with. They have allbeen good friends personally and certainlygood friends with the company, and ofcourse all the people I’ve worked with over25 years here at Cobb, I will miss all thosefolks. I will struggle to find ways to stay incontact because many have been personalfriends. We are a family orientated companyand so that is going to be the piece that I willmiss.

What about your own plans? How do you seeyourself spending the next five years?I have got some opportunities to be involvedhere in the industry. I will next year becomechairman of the US Poultry and EggAssociation, so that will keep me very busyfor the next two years. I don’t want to walkaway from the industry completely, I’vealways enjoyed it. And then I have also become involved with

a couple of charities here in north westArkansas and that is something I really wantto continue to do. The community here hasbeen good, both to my family and to Cobb ingeneral, and so if there are ways I can helpthem I want to be able to do that. The reality is to get a chance finally to

spend time with the family and leisure timewhere I can concentrate on them. The jobI’ve had for the last 15 years or so hasinvolved a lot of time on the road, and inairplanes, and away from home, and so weare going to really enjoy more family timetogether.

Seventy delegates from 13 Cobbdistributors serving almost 50 countries inthe region took part in the biennial event,which took place over four days at theElephant Hills resort at Victoria Falls andprovided the opportunity for technicalpresentations on aspects of grandparentand parent stock production. Donnie Smith referred to the many

people across the world going to bedhungry every night. “That’s one in four livingright here in Africa,” he said. “It’s difficult toimagine that in many countries people arespending 40 to 45 percent of their annualincome on food and in a world where thepopulation is growing at an unimaginablerate we have an amazing challenge in frontof us.”He said the industry had the knowledge

and ability to change that: “The fact is -making great food isn’t cheap but must beaffordable to every consumer becauseevery consumer is different. For some, foodis about survival. For others it’s aboutchoice and experience. “So we don’t make foods for just one kind

of consumer. We make food for everyone -no matter their religion, culture or economicbackground.”He said consumers wanted chicken:

“It’s more affordable and more culturallyaccepted around the globe. Chicken is nowthe assumed ‘healthier’ protein option and,for the first time in history, globally, chickenconsumption is projected it overtake pork

consumption as early as 2020.”The challenges facing the industry are to

reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to worldtrade, to make sure that consumers trusttheir products and to progresssustainability through water reduction andother environmental goals. Mark Sams, Cobb general manager of

the Europe, Middle East and Africa region,said the event provided an idealopportunity to update everyone on currentproduct performance while outlining plansfor the future.“The distributor network is a vital part of

the success Cobb has experienced overthe last century and will continue to be veryimportant for our future,” he said. “I believethat local people understanding thedynamics of each market and being able torelate closely to specific market,geographical or cultural situations helpsprovide the quality of products and servicethat the Cobb brand stands for.”The technical sessions discussed the

management of grandparent lines basedon the experience from the top 25 percentof performances across the region. Awards for the best company

performance went to Cobb Europe, withQuantum Foods of South Africa runner-up.Other awards were gained by HybridPoultry Farm of Zambia, Cobb Española ofSpain and Cobb Europe, with recognition ofthe best performance progress going toCobb Sweden.

Global foodvision atZimbabweconference

Zimbabwe Grandparent Conference

The role of chicken in helping to make good food affordable to the many differenttypes of consumers around the world was expounded by Donnie Smith, chiefexecutive officer of Tyson Foods, at a conference in Zimbabwe for Cobbdistributors across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

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Top: Donnie Smith presents a gift to David Irvine, Cobbdistributor in Zimbabwe for more than 50 years, inappreciation for helping to organize the conference.

Center: Aaron Banda (left), of Hybrid Poultry Farm, Zambia,receives an award from Roy Mutimer of Cobb.

Mitch Abrahamsen (left) of Cobb, presents an award toJuan Carlos Abad of Cobb Española.

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School highlights genetic improvements

Macau Technical School

More than 130 customers from across Asia took part in the Cobb Asia-Pacific technicalschool in Macau, China, where the four days training course covered topics fromgrandparent selection through to broiler management and updates on the latest Cobbgenetic improvements.

In welcoming the delegates, Pelayo Casanovas,Cobb general manager for the Asia-Pacificregion, said he hoped they would make newfriends with people there while gaining furtherknowledge about the chicken business. Thirty five grandparent distributors and their

parent stock customers were represented atthe event which also provided an opportunityto better understand the advancing geneticpotential of the Cobb500. Orlando Fernandez, Cobb Asian regional

director of technical services, congratulatedcompanies on their superior performance in

2015. He added: “Asian customers spokehighly of Cobb because of the technicalservice we provide at every level of theproduction chain. They prefer Cobb as thebreed of choice for the Asian market”.Performance awards for grandparent and

parent stock level were presented during thebanquet on the final night. Leong Hup ofMalaysia, CPF of Thailand, Islamabad Poultryof Pakistan, Wonokoyo of Indonesia, PT Bibit ofIndonesia, Emivest of Vietnam and BountyFresh of Philippines were among the awardedcompanies.

Above: Ismail Mohammad speaking at thepresentation banquet.

The Bounty Fresh Group with their award -pictured from left: Marvin Joo Heng Lau,Thiam Seng Lau, Pelayo Casanovas (Cobb),Tee Nian Howe, Peter Tan, Mark Glavey(Cobb), Ely Jun Pates, Alvin Arucan (Cobb)and Choo Siew Loon.

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“At that time - and even now - we felt that thegenotype by environment interaction is veryimportant in expression of various traits.We were aiming to breed a broiler that wouldbe acclimatized to the climatic conditionsand husbandry practices prevailing in India.This has really paid us a dividend as thebirds bred by Venco normally outperform theimported breeds. I was privileged to work with Dr B V Rao

until his sad death in 1996. He importedCobb grandparents from 1974 to 1980 underan agreement between VenkateshwaraHatcheries and Cobb to establish a jointventure company in the name of VencoResearch and Breeding Farm with 60percent equity from VH and 40 percent fromCobb. In many ways Dr Rao became the founder

of the modern Indian poultry industry.He established a vaccine plant, diagnosticlaboratory and equipment manufacturing unitfor incubators and hatchers. He also set up apoultry training institute and started theNational Egg Co-ordination Committee. Having worked in breeding egg layers for

eight years, my first experience with broilerbreeding was at Cobb when I visited them in1980 in Massachusetts where Dr JohnSwanson was the research director. After Cobb moved to Arkansas in 1986,

I began to work with Dr John Hardiman and

since then we have worked together on theVenco breeding program. He took a lot ofinterest in our work and gave valuablesuggestions which helped us to develop ourprogram.We first imported Cobb Pure Lines in 1981.

At that time Cobb was also marketing theCobb100 and these lines became thefoundation of our breeding programme here.Cobb100 is an ‘eggy breed’ which producesvery lean and comparatively slow growingbroilers.Some of the Cobb lines imported later in

1993 and 2001 were bred in India for anumber of years, not only for their breederand broiler traits but also for theiradaptability in Indian climatic and husbandryconditions which made our product morerobust and suitable for our type of broilerindustry.We developed the Vencobb400 which

slowly replaced the Vencobb100; it hasbetter meat yield, growth rate and feedconversion, but we also tried to retain thebreeder traits of the 100. Then in 2014 weintroduced the Vencobb430 with significantlybetter meat yield and feed conversion thanthe Vencobb400, and customers areachieving superior results.We have annual exchange of information

and R & D results with Cobb geneticists.Every two years Cobb geneticists visit Vencowhich helps us in implementing ourprogramme, and recently we have exportedone line from Venco to Cobb. It was very kind of Roy Mutimer and

Pelayo Casanovas to present me with a lovelymemento and say few words regarding mycontribution to the growth of Venco. Of course, without the help of Cobb - not

only geneticists but other executives too -Venco would not have achieved what wehave.For the future - I like travelling and in the

past one year, I have visited quite a fewplaces in India and abroad. This year alsoI’m planning to visit more places. However, Venco is not leaving me! I’m

remaining as a consultant to Venco on R & Dmatters.”

Dr G L Jain’s ‘outstanding work’

A specially commissioned Chinesepainting depicting a hen chasing abutterfly was presented toDr Genda Lal Jain from Cobb on hisretirement from VenkateshwaraHatcheries in India in recognitionof his 36 years of work at thecompany’s research farm in Pune.

Pictured from left are Madam Anuradha Desai (chairof Venkateshwara Hatcheries), Roy Mutimer, JitendraDesai, Dr Genda Lal Jain, Pelayo Casanovas andDr Dilip Kolte.

Dr Genda Lal Jain joined Venkateshwara Hatcheries in 1980 after working as a poultrylecturer at Rajasthan Agriculture University and then as a director in the IndianGovernment’s Central Poultry Breeding Farm for six years. He tells us about his 36years with the company.

Breeding abroiler toperform in theIndianenvironment

Pelayo Casanovas, general managerof Cobb in the Asia-Pacific region,said that Dr Jain had achieved‘outstanding work at the Vencoresearch farm in developing the Cobb100, 400 and latterly 430 andretaining the major market share forseveral consecutive years in India’.

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Specialist talk on egg incubation Ambient temperature and relative humidity is essential to reduce chick mortalityduring the first week of age, according to incubation specialist Eduardo Costa,of the Cobb-Vantress World Technical Support Team, when he spoke at the 11thtechnical symposium on incubation, broiler breeders and nutrition, organized bythe ACAV - Santa Catarina State Poultry Association, in Florianopolis, Brazil.

His presentation included data from studiesand research by Cobb around the world,demonstrating factors that influencemortality during the first seven days of age. “With this information, we were able to

set parameters that can be put intopractice at the poultry farms andhatcheries. Our purpose is to improvehatchery management and ensure that thebirds express all their genetic potential.” “To avoid impairing the egg development,

we need to maintain egg shell quality toallow sufficient gas and heat exchangebetween the egg and the environment andto produce healthy chicks. Relative humiditycontrol is important to guarantee the chickshatch naturally,” said Eduardo Costa.The customers attending the symposium

travelled from Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia,and had a chance to take a closer look atmodern farm operations, with automatedfeeding systems and nests.

Cobb-Vantress held a training session for Pinto Formoso'sbreeding team, specializing in chick and egg sales inNorth Eastern Brazil.

According to technical advisor Rodrigo Baião, the training was chosenby the company: “Our presentation focused on uniformity, weightcontrol and carcase formation at the end of the breeding phase.”Pinto Formoso is a long standing Cobb customer, with farms and

hatcheries in the State of Pernambuco.

Brazil

Cobb hosts GaloMineiro dinner

Technical advice for PintoFormoso team

Cobb-Vantress was in Pará deMinas (MG) to participate in theAvimig Poultry Show and to hostthe 172nd Galo Mineiro Dinner.

Bernardo Gallo, Cobb technicalsupport manager explained thepractices used by Cobb to ensure thebest broiler and the critical factors ofmanagement in the initial and finalphases to ensure the best possibleresults. “Avimig and Cobb are great

partners, and our presence in theGalo Mineiro dinner reaffirms ourcommitment to the association and itsmembers,” said Cassiano Bevilaqua,Cobb marketing manager.

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News from around the world

Cobb supports Special OlympicsOver 200 athletes gathered at John Brown University in Siloam Springs to train forthe annual week-long Special Olympics Arkansas Sports Camp where Cobb-Vantresshosted its 15th dinner for all athletes and coaches.

“The team at Cobb-Vantress is a valuable part of our Special Olympics Arkansas family.They’ve been providing an amazing spread of food for our athletes and volunteers since2001,” said Special Olympics Arkansas board member and coach, Jerry Bridges.

Leong HupagreementextendedA new partnership agreement hasbeen signed extending the LeongHup Group’s distribution of theCobb500 broiler breeder inMalaysia.

Pelayo Casanovas, Cobb generalmanager for the Asia-Pacific region,commented: “With this agreement weextend into the future an already solidpartnership between Cobb andLeong Hup. We are very proud of ourassociation with this exceptionalcompany and with the Lau family, andwe look forward to supporting eachother for years to come.”

One award went to Zarshed Muhamadiev(above right), owner of F H Navobod Naslli,pictured with Ravshan Buldakov, chieftechnologist, for achieving ‘exceptional broilerperformance’. He stated: “Since working withCobb our technical and financial results aregetting better year by year with the highquality chicks and technical service providedby Cobb. We are proud to be a part of theCobb family and this prize motivates us tokeep striving to be the best.”Cobb CIS manager Patrick van Trijp (above

far right) presented the second Cobb

Champion award to Alexandr Sovich, deputydirector of Vasilievskaya farm in theCherkizovo group. He said, “Being part of theCobb family we improved the production inour operation in both breeders and broilersand are amongst the top in the industry. I amsure with the help of Cobb we will stay there!”

These companies join our other 2015 CobbChampion winners whose results wereamongst the top 1% in Europe, the MiddleEast and Africa in the categories of breeder,broiler and hatchability performance.

Cobb Championawards go toCIS companiesOutstanding Cobb500performance in the broilercategory from two CIS companieshas won them Cobb Championawards, presented at the regionaltechnical seminar in Cyprus.

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The first parent stock have been deliveredfrom the new hatchery that Cobb hasdeveloped at Suizhou, in Hubei province, tosupply the Chinese market.

“We can now officially support the Chinesemarket with parent stock of the highest quality,”said Pelayo Casanovas, Cobb general managerfor the Asia-Pacific region. “We hope this will bea game changer for the Chinese parent stockmarket and help the industry achieve betterefficiency and yield.” The chick truck delivered the first hatch to

Xiantan Corporation in Shandong province.Cobb China technical service managerChanchai Chaikittiporn was at the farm tosupervise brooding preparations. “Xiantan farm

did a great job in creating an ideal environmentfor the chicks’ arrival,” he stated. The hatchery forms part of the $35 million

Cobb Tong Xing project to develop agrandparent complex to supply initially fivemillion parent stock a year.

China deliversfirst chicks

We hope this will bea game changer forthe Chinese market.

“

Top executives Jerry Moye and Joel Sappenfield visitedthe new farm and hatchery complex in Suizhou City,Hubei province, which will soon begin supplying theChinese market.

After with meeting the Suizhou City government officials,secretary general Xia Weidong and chief of agriculture ChenDegui, Jerry Moye thanked them for the continuous support ofthe Cobb Tong Xing project.

Top level visit to new production center

China

News from around the world

cobb-vantress.com

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First WIT traineesfrom Saudi ArabiaThe first students to benefit from theAl Watania Institute of Technology(WIT) in Saudi Arabia have been withCobb in the USA and UK, gainingfirst-hand experience about manyaspects of poultry production.

The experience over four weeks coveredgreat grandparent farms, hatcheries, afeed mill, quality control laboratory,transportation and processing plant.

Surprise visitor atSPACE trade show

Strengthening Cobb US team

Mike Pruitt succeedsRandy Vardeman,who has announcedhis retirement at theend of this year. “Mikebrings a wealth ofknowledge andexperience to this roleas he has served insenior leadership roles with OK Foods,Con Agra/Pilgrims and Foster Farms priorto joining Cobb, “said Joel Sappenfield,

President of Cobb-Vantress.

Kevin Odenbach isresponsible forserving customers inthe Southwest Regionincluding CaliforniaArkansas, Tennessee,Kentucky and Texas.

He has more than 20 years’ experience inthe US poultry industry and was mostrecently breeder and hatchery managerat the Pilgrim’s Pride Nacogdochescomplex in Texas.

Todd Wilson hasbeen with TysonFoods since 1989 ina series ofmanagementpositions coveringbroiler, breeders andhatcheries.Stan Reid, Cobb

vice president ofNorth and South Americas, commented:“Todd’s industry experience and provenleadership skills make him a valuableasset and excellent choice to work withour production, sales and technicalservice teams.”

Mike Pruitt has been promoted to senior vice president of support servicesand pedigree production. Kevin Odenbach has joined the North Americantechnical services team and Todd Wilson has been appointed generalmanager for Cobb-Vantress, Inc. for North America.

WIT trainees Hawas Sulaiman H Alhawwas and AhmadMosa N Alhazzaa outside the Cobb headquarters inSiloam Springs, Arkansas.

Cobb Europe exhibited at the SPACEexhibition in Rennes, France in Septemberand had a surprise visit from Jane Hartley,the US Ambassador. Each year theambassador takes advantage of the show toencourage relations between French andAmerican economic players.

Pictured from left to right: Marcel Denieul, presidentof Space, Jane Hartley, the US Ambassador, ToreMercan, sales and technical director and Wout vanWolfswinkel, senior account manager.