Staff from the Poultry CRC recently attended the combined 2012 Poultry Information Exchange/Australian Milling Conference (PIX) at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. The theme for the 2012 conference was ‘Feeding the Nation’. This well respected bi-annual event provides the CRC the opportunity to promote our research and education activities, and resulting services to the Australian poultry industry. This year we joined over 120 exhibitors at the event, alongside Poultry CRC participants Australian Egg Corporation Ltd. (AECL), Alltech, Bioproperties, Feedworks, Hy-Line Australia, Pfizer and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC).
Egg producer Bede Burke highlighted the relevance of these types of events to industry personnel. “Each time I come to PIX I always manage to find something to take away” he said. This year Bede was very excited about speaking to representatives of Skiold & Vacuum Milling Solutions about disc milling. The Burkes waste stream mitigation includes the use of composted waste as a fertiliser for their neighbouring grain growing enterprise. Grain can then be fed back into their egg production system. Bede concluded, “This (disc milling) looks as though it can provide optimal feed structure while lowering our overall power consumption.”
CRC staff spoke to a number of people new to the industry, and with many of these enquiries relating to education and/or training opportunities it provided an excellent platform to promote educational materials such as our Commercial Layer Management and Meat Chicken Management series of books. “Extension is of paramount importance to the poultry industry, and will be one of the major legacies of the Poultry CRC” assured Professor Mingan Choct, CEO of the Poultry CRC. There were also a number of enquiries relating to the CRC’s Post-mortem DVD (which is available for purchase via AECL). Surrounded by a wealth of experienced industry representatives, CRC staff were able to direct many enquiries to relevant experts.
The value of meeting delegates face-to-face is one of the real strengths of events such as PIX. The opportunity to directly engage with colleagues and friends is extremely valuable in this context. Not only were the days full of informative presentations, but the evening social events gave delegates the opportunity to catch up in a less formal setting (with excellent food on offer). Thanks must go to the organisers for such a well-attended and worthwhile conference.
