Dr Natalie Morgan, Poultry Nutrition researcher at the University of New England, was a successful applicant in the Researcher in Industry scheme run by Poultry Hub. This granted her the opportunity to shadow nutritionists at Inghams Group Limited for a week in Sydney. She was fully immersed into what it is like to be a commercial poultry nutritionist in a poultry integrator company; including formulating diets, touring a feed mill and visiting a turkey farm and processing plant. Dr Morgan says ‘As a result of this experience I developed a much deeper understanding of the whole process between formulating diets to feeding them on farm, including how ingredients are selected, sampled and sourced and the practicality of making diets in a feed mill. Consequently, I have a much greater appreciation of the need to ensure research diets can translate into commercial diets, thus ensuring that my research is directly relevant to the poultry industry. I also learnt a lot at the commercial farm and processing plant, including what key issues farmers and processor workers are currently facing, the differences between the turkey and chicken meat industry and the technology and man-power involved in producing poultry products. I thoroughly recommend all poultry researchers acquire experience in an industry setting’. The outcome of this is a collaborative relationship has developed between Dr Morgan and Inghams Group Limited, resulting in plans for directly industry relevant nutrition research to be conducted in the future.
