Published on Nov. 23, 2022
ISA Brown, gaining momentum in Central Java
Recently we (PT ISA Indonesia & PT Sapta Karya Megah, SKM) visited Central Java to promote our ISA Brown in this area (approximately 25 million Layers). As of historical reasons this area has been dominated by the chicken breeds of the competition, but due to the good performance of the ISA Brown this is shifting!
During a recent visit to Central Java, we visited the commercial production facilities of the largest egg producers in this regions. This company has 2 production locations with 510.000 and 490.000 commercial laying hens.
When looking at the total group (it is a family-owned business), they have approximately 1.5 million laying hens. This group is seen as an example in the region and is by far the number 1 in size, all in all they employ over 600 people.
During the past 5 years, they have experience with multiple chicken breeds. Around 5 years ago they noticed that their birds were getting too small in body size and experienced a drop in egg production, so they moved to another supplier, but as the results were still not satisfying, and an increase in sexing errors was observed, they started to look outside of their existing suppliers. That’s how they got the ISA Brown back on their radar. They did not order ISA Browns in the past as of the image of the reputation of the lighter brown colored eggshells.
But as the genetic team of Hendrix Genetics have improved greatly the eggshell color and the color uniformity of the ISA Brown during recent years, we were able to convince them to place some flocks back in 2021.
Today, their oldest flock is 67 weeks of age, and they are very happy with the performance of the ISA Brown laying hens, not only on eggshell color, but also on egg production and the excellent livability. Their conclusion: the ISA Brown is the best breed available in Indonesia.
They clearly noted that especially when the laying hens are kept under challenging conditions the ISA Brown is outperforming her competitors.
We have asked them what we need to change to grow our business with them, they told us not to change anything anymore with our genetics as the laying hens are so close to perfection. Of course we did not promise to stop selecting our laying hens, as we will continue to improve the ISA Brown on all important traits in a balanced way. As this is the only way to maintain Global Success!
