Turkey Federation Conference, June 22, 2012

This year’s Turkey Federation Conference was held in Mittagong NSW where social dinners, industry presentations, tours and awards were attended along with the Annual General Meeting. This was a great event for turkey breeders, turkey producers and everyone involved in the turkey industry.

The conference was enjoyable and informative, allowing people from the industry to exchange knowledge, network, socialise and learn. The event commenced on Friday night with a dinner at the Mittagong RSL. Saturday involved informational sessions from guest speakers, as well as a tour of the Mittagong wine region and the International Cricket Museum. Wine tasting was followed by dinner at Peppers Manor House overlooking the areas valley wine region. There was an early wrap up Sunday with the final guest speakers and Annual General Meeting.

Among the guest speakers were –

• Boris Showniruk, Managing Director, UPEC (Universal Processing Equipment Co) Australia. Since the first mechanical meat separation in 1971 innovations in poultry processing equipment has improved so much so that the latest technology is staggering! Boris highlighted that there is a focus on pathogen control and bird welfare led by the industry and those manufacturing equipment.
• Margaret Sexton, Government of South Australia, Technical Manager- Poultry Food Production, raised interest in the downstream effects of Salmonella. Margaret highlighted industry practices that are useful to producers that could decrease challenges on farm.
• Christine Clark, Sales Manager, AusPac Ingredients, discussed the importance of water quality and effects on bird health. She provided an overview of on farm practices that can affect water hygiene in relation to bird performance.
• Kayleen Turns, Market Segment Manager, Kerry Ingredients Asia Pacific, showed a variety of products from overseas producers focusing on value enhanced turkey products.
• Tim Elliott, Origin Energy, did an excellent job of giving the facts on LPG gas and the effects of carbon tax on pricing. Tim discussed the clean energy package deployed by the current government and what this structure means to producers.
• Jorge Pena and Adam Naylor from Alltech jointly presented an overview of the Turkey industry in South America, where the Latin Americas are the world’s fastest growing exporter. Adam eloquently followed with a ‘Feeding the world’ update outlining how we are going to feed a population of nine billion people by 2050.
• Magnus Swalander, Global R&D Director, Aviagen Turkeys gave an amazing overview of the breeding and selection operations in the USA and UK. The technology used today for selection of Aviagen genetics was astounding.
• Peter Gray, NSW Technical Services Manager, Inghams Enterprises Pty. Limited, discussed the details no FZANZ Meat Standards 4.2.2. This standard is part of a series of national food safety standards. The aim is to strengthen food safety and traceability throughout the food supply chain from paddock to plate. The standard introduces new legal safeguards for growing live poultry and requires poultry growers to identify and control food safety hazards associated with poultry growing.

Please Contact the Australasian Turkey Federation for further information.

Assistance with this article by Christine Clark.