Poultry Performance Plus

Training and advisory services on broilers and laying hens

Ron Meijerhof has practically spent his entire career doing field research work in poultry. In 2009, he established his own company, Poultry Performance Plus (PP+), where he markets his worldwide academic and practice-based expertise in the field of animal welfare and performance.

PP+ offers extensive training and consultancy services for poultry integrators, breeders, pharmaceutical companies, equipment manufacturers, construction companies and feed companies around broiler chickens and laying hens. The focus lies on broiler production, reproduction and incubation, but the later life stages are also included.

The broiler breeding industry is dominated by just a few global concerns. If any issues arise anywhere in the chain, Ron is often called in to solve the problem. Given that these concerns operate on a worldwide scale, Ron’s work takes him across the world. In one week, Ron could be travelling through Eastern Europe, visiting several countries in one trip, and a week later, he could be in South America or South-East Asia.

With his many years of experience, Ron can often pinpoint the underlying causes with just one look around the stall and a chat with the poultry farmer. Those causes could be related to the feed, temperature, ventilation, housing, breeding procedures, illnesses or other factors. Often, it’s a combination of factors. He brings measuring equipment with him to support his findings with raw data.

Ron: ‘The biggest challenge isn’t digging up the cause and the solution to the problem. No matter where you are in the world, the chickens are always the same. The real challenge – and the fun part of the job – often lies in managing the cultural differences between people. It’s all about bringing the advice in such a way that the farmer instantly understands, accepts, and above all, carries out the recommendations. I have had situations where my advice was weighed against the number of stars of the hotel where I was staying. If the hotel had enough stars, that meant I was a good professional and that my advice had to be taken to heart. It is important to be aware of such situations.’

Ron’s advice is so unique and valuable that he is a welcome guest at poultry concerns across the globe. A couple of percentage points of improved yield quickly leads to significant results with the numbers of chicks involved. This can sometimes amount to the production of millions of chicks per week.