National Poultry Newspaper

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Vol 4. No. 4 April 2021 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Jess Spencer and Dion Andary of Days Eggs test drove the biosecurity virtual reality program launched by Australian Eggs through the sustainability framework report 2021.
Biosecurity VR tool improving skill levels
THE industry has launched two game- changers for Australian farmers – a farm sustain- ability dashboard and a biosecurity virtual real- ity tool – to help egg farmers to continue to improve on-farm and business practices.
that has been producing and delivering eggs for over 30 years, are the state’s largest egg pro- ducer.
without the need to be on farm.
With the display screen, the program allows man- agers to view how the user faired with their answers, giving an idea of their un- derstanding of biosecurity and what their training needs are.
These two tools are an- nounced in the third sus- tainability framework re- port.
“The content of the VR program is based on cur- rent biosecurity measures and will provide a great tool for basic induction biosecurity training of new staff, as well as re- fresher training for other staff.
Australian Eggs manag- ing director Rowan Mc- Monnies said, “Our new biosecurity VR tool al- lows new and existing staff to be trained in a close to real-life environ- ment, driving efficiencies and improving training outcomes.”
The Australian Eggs sustainability framework report examines the rela- tionship between the Aus- tralian community and the egg industry, using in- sights from annual CSIRO community research.
Australian Eggs world- leading agritech tools will help farmers improve sus- tainability and biosecurity practices.
“It encourages the user to seek out biosecurity is- sues and gives them feed- back on their answers as well as tips.”
In direct response to key issues raised by the com- munity and industry as part of the sustainability framework process, Aus- tralian Eggs has devel- oped the tools.
Ms Spencer explains a key benefit of delivering biosecurity training virtu- ally is that it allows com- plete induction training in a controlled environment
The world-leading agr- itech, part of Australian Eggs sustainability frame- work process, supports learning by not allowing the user to progress to other areas until they have answered all questions within an area correctly.
“It’s great to know the initiatives we developed in response to community issues raised through our sustainability framework are making an impact, with Australians’ trust in our industry continuing to grow.”
Days Eggs, a family- managed egg business lo- cated in South Australia
Days Eggs poultry wel- fare manager Jess Spen- cer believes the biosecu- rity virtual reality tool, launched through the sustainability framework report of 2021, improves efficiency in training and allows farm managers to raise the initial skill set of new members, as well as providing additional training to help raise the skill set of current team members who may learn better through this type of training delivery.
“This in turn increases safety and mitigates wel- fare risks by reducing the chance of any issues aris- ing from new staff learn- ing on farm, who aren’t competent in biosecurity yet,” she said.
“It makes the person us- ing it actively think about what the risks are and what they must do to miti- gate them,” Ms Spencer said.
Chook Chat Hack is a hit
POULTRY Hub Aus- tralia’s Chook Chat Hack was a real hit and attracted a great deal of interest.
Teams of undergradu- ate students studying at Australian universities were asked to tackle the looming food short- age of 2050, and how chickens and eggs could be the answer.
Teams participated in a five-day hack and were provided with all the information needed to make their video en- try.
swing of things with research and welcomed 13 preliminary propos- als from our open call for research.
PHA is committed to attracting the best and brightest students to our industry and re- taining them.
The winner received $3,000 in cash and the runner-up, a de- luxe chicken coop... of course!
Many fantastic ideas were received from teams of capable scien- tists and their industry partners.
For more details of the scholarship or how to apply, contact us at poultryhub@une.edu. au or head to our web- site.
The ideas the groups had were tremendous.
I look forward to bringing you the details of the successful pro- jects very soon.
Last month, the PHA team had the pleasure of meeting the Gov- ernor General and his wife Mrs Hurley.
I was really excited to see the submissions and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with all the teams and answering their chicken questions.
I would like to take this opportunity to an- nounce that we have $5,000 honours schol- arships, which are available for honours students undertaking a poultry research pro- ject at an Australian university.
They paid us a visit to learn more about poul- try and the work we are doing.
To check out the vid- eos of all our finalists and the winners, head to our website, poultry- hub.org.
We talked at length about the training we have been undertaking
We are back into the
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
* continued P2
The Governor General David Hurley, Mrs Hurley, UNE’s Chancellor Mr James Harris, Dr Natalie Morgan, Tamsyn Crowley and Hailey Cameron.
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