If you really want to know what matters most to turkey breeders, the best approach is simply to ask them.
That might sound painfully obvious, but one session at the recent Midwest Poultry Federation Convention in Minneapolis, focused on that, and presented some rather interesting, and sometimes surprising opinions on what topics concern breeders the most.
When speaking to a group of turkey breeders and turkey producers at the recent convention, Tom Knapp took a couple of different approaches.
Ordinarily, speakers ask their audiences to put their cell phones away and to put them on silence mode to prevent disruptions. Knapp, U.S. accounts manager, Hybrid Turkeys, asked those in attendance to pull out their smartphones.
Also differentiating his presentation from so many others, rather than telling the audience what is important, he asked those attending what they felt was important.
Tom Knapp, Hybrid Turkeys, surveyed attendees at the Midwest Poultry Federation Convention during the Turkey Breeder Workshop | Photo by Roy Graber
In Knapp’s presentation, he utilized technology in which people present could respond to the choices via their smartphones, and the results were immediately available.
Do priorities, time spent match?
Knapp did give the audience members choices by which to answer, so what could have been the most important priority for certain people in attendance may not have been one of the choices. But in polls like this, there may not necessarily be a right or wrong answer.
However, Knapp, in his presentation, did make one observation: That which you are to improve must first be measured.
So when you ask yourself, what aspects of breeding and production matter most to you, you must then ask yourself that if you invest more time in improving what matters most than any other aspect of your operation? If that is not the case, possibly some adjustments can be made.
Some of the responses to Knapp’s survey can be seen on the infographic below.
Image by Jennifer Keller
