During a week-long study tour the team went to Jansen, Fancom, VDL, Vencomatic and Ciemmecalabria who each provided an update on their products and latest innovations.

"Our business as a breeding company is to deliver genetic progress to our customers year-on-year," said Euan Meldrum, marketing manager of Cobb Europe. "It has been very valuable for us to see that this progress is being matched by new technologies and techniques in the poultry equipment sector."

Matthew Wilson, technical manager of Cobb Europe, added: "Staying at the forefront on technical matters is one of the most important attributes of our team. But it's also a two-way process. A week like this not only helps keep our team up to speed, it also allows the equipment suppliers to tap into our extensive Cobb technical knowledge.

"Our technical team has over 400 years' combined technical knowledge and the interaction between them and all equipment suppliers was greatly appreciated by all."

The day-to-day interaction that the regional technical team has with customers is backed up by the Cobb World Technical Support Team which provides high-level specialist expertise on all aspects of the poultry industry.