Sanderson Farms : Flock Awards

Sanderson Farms' Kinston, North Carolina; Laurel, Mississippi; and McComb, Mississippi production divisions received Aviagen Flock Awards for maximizing the genetic potential of their birds in the last year. Each year, Aviagen presents Flock Awards to poultry producers for their outstanding production of the company's parent stock and broiler flocks.

"Our goal with the Flock Award Program is twofold, to encourage growers throughout the region by showing them the breeder performance that is possible with Ross birds and to provide customers with a helpful benchmarking tool," said Marc de Beer, president for Aviagen North America. "We are immensely proud of their accomplishments, and look forward to helping our customers achieve continued success."

The Aviagen Flock Awards presented gold and silver awards for Top Egg Producer, which recognizes producers for the most egg output per hen housed to 65 weeks, and Top Hatching Eggs, which recognizes poultry producers for the highest number of hatching eggs per hen housed to 65 weeks. In addition, the organization awarded producers for the Top Chicks award, which recognizes producers for the most chicks produced per hen housed to 65 weeks, and the Top Hatch award, which recognizes producers for the greatest hatchability to 65 weeks. The company's Kinston Production division won a gold award for the Top Chicks category and silver awards for the Top Egg Producer and Top Hatching Eggs categories, while the Laurel Production division won a gold award for the Top Hatch category and the McComb Production division won a silver award for the same category.

"We congratulate these high achievers, who are a shining example to the entire industry of the breeder performance that is possible through hard work, commitment to detail and a true passion for what they do," said Frank Dougherty, former vice president of sales for Aviagen North America. "We celebrate their achievement, and look forward to continuing to work together for even greater future success."

Aviagen began the Flock Award program in 2014 to celebrate the achievements of its valued customers. Since then, Aviagen has seen growth in award participation each year.

"The continued success of our facilities can be attributed to attending to small details," said Mike Tamimi, director of production for Sanderson Farms. "Everyone can grow chickens and be average, but to maintain being a top 10% performing division, small details have to be identified and resolved."

Honored Sanderson Farms production facility leaders say they have strived to do their best and produce results that help the company maintain a position within the top 10% of the industry. In fact, this is the fifth time the company's Kinston Production facility has been recognized with an Aviagen Flock Award and the second year Laurel Production and McComb Production have joined Kinston in receiving Aviagen Awards.

Edward Chisholm, director of operations for Sanderson Farms, said he is proud of the continued improvement made by the company's production facilities. "On behalf of Sanderson Farms, I would like to thank the entire team at Kinston, Laurel and McComb Production for their commitment to excellence and their devotion to helping Sanderson Farms excel within the industry," said Chisholm. "Achieving top honors in not just one, but all four categories within Aviagen's Flock Awards is quite exceptional and something these teams should be proud of."