SKOV dealer meeting in Bangkok and launch of the new BF55 BlueFan

On March 7, the day before the opening of VIV Asia 2023 in Bangkok, SKOV held its dealer meeting with a large gathering from all over the world, including Australia with representatives from the Australian distributor, Santrev/FarmMark in attendance.
They were welcomed by Rasmus Ellefsen, Managing Director, SKOV Asia.
Mark Wright, Business Development Manager/Poultry Specialist, presented an Asia market update for poultry in the region.The good news was that world poultry meat production has trended upwards, growing from 84.63 million metric tons in 2006 to 135.177 million metric tons in 2021. The projected growth rate for the poultry market from 2015 to 2035 is 65%.
World egg production also increased from 50 million metric tons in 2000 to 82.168 million metric tons in 2019.
“The year on year increase in Asia,” Mr Wright explained, “is due to rapid population growth, increasing per capita incomes and the demand for low fat/high protein foods. India is a good example of that trend.
“Many more Asian people are moving to an animal based protein diet partly because of the convenience factor of processed meat and an increasing demand for frozen and chilled meat has increased demand for poultry across Asia.”
The takeaway message was that global animal protein production would only grow modestly in 2023 but it would be another year of challenge. There will be high costs along the supply chain issues, swings in consumption and other areas of uncertainty for producers.
As a result, margins will be squeezed and buyers will push back on higher production costs. The opportunities will still be there but a bit more restricted.
Growth will favour value for money products, efficient producers and processors and bio secure producers. 2023 will be a year to recalibrate growth expectations and plans. There will be ongoing recovery but the growth will be slow, is the Rabobank prediction.
Biosecurity challenges are set to persist in 2023 and industry will have to step up efforts to control risks given the high price of product loss.
Arne Overgaard next showcased Proten, one of SKOV’s biggest projects in Australia.
Proten is the biggest contract grower in the world and is growing birds for five integrators in Australia. It produces 140 million birds annually and has 22% of the market share in Australia with a total of 50 farms located throughout the country.
Altogether these farms have 550 sheds with Rotem, Fancom and SKOV fans. SKOV has installed more than 160 houses and all fans are LPC (BF 50 and DA 1700).
“For existing farms, I like the retrofit option provided by the BF50 as they are quick and easy to install into an existing fan hole and the power saving and performance over traditional on/off fans is excellent,” said Bill Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Proten.
Arne also talked about Modderbult, a contract grower for Astral, the biggest integrator in South Africa. Three years ago, the company bought eight houses from Dynamic/SKOV and upgraded all competitors’ controllers and FOL to SKOV. The next step is to upgrade all competitors’ fans to SKOV BF 50 LPC.
Tommy Krogh, Business Development Manager, Poultry Specialist SKOV, announced BlueControl, the new generation of SKOV climate and production controllers with new system software which includes simple production (+P) functionality and changes to add-on software.
“Simple products mean less customisation,” Tommy said, “and creates strong collaboration with SKOV customers.”
The key points of the new SKOV climate and production controllers are that there will be an easier way to adjust temperature, minimum ventilation will be renamed. Ventilation is from 0-100%. There will be specific front-pages for each domain. It will be dynamic and not customisable and there will be new information architecture.
Tommy explained that in making these series of steps the idea was to redo the navigation structure to provide better focus. There is also a need to focus on key controller tasks and also to simplify setup and commissioning.

Launch of the BF 55 BlueFan
Tommy went on to announce the launch of the BF 55 BlueFan by pointing out what is new about it. What is essentially a rebrand of the DA 1700 BlueFan, it has a new motor range to new IE regulations.
It is easier to assemble and install, is more robust and there is cost optimisation in terms of packaging and transportation. Seventy eight BF 55 units can fit into the same size container as 60 DA 1700 units. All parts are packed in separate/multiple packaging.
Differences in performance compared to DA 1700: In low mode operation, capacity and consumption are more or less identical. At maximum capacity the BF 55 LPC HF is identical to the DA 1700-6 from 0-90%
capacity. But the BF 55 LPC HF+ has a 13% higher capacity than the DA 1700.
Next, Mark Wright, Business Development Manager/Poultry Specialist introduced the FarmOnline+.
The current option for FarmOnline includes FarmOnline on a farm PC, on a smartphone and data is collected via the controller.
“With FarmOnline+ data from all locations is in one place and is available everywhere. Data is never lost and is well protected. Maintenance costs are reduced on hardware and the software and are continuously improved and updated. SKOV and its distributors will offer more digital services for both operation, service and administration, which meets customer expectations,” explained Mark.
“This means greater flexibility, reduction in complexity, reduced risk, enables value chain collaboration, seamless scaling and lower or unchanged cost.”
FarmOnline+ comes in different packages to suit small farmers and company farmers.
The basic package includes what you need to know to run your farm, cloud based and access from anywhere. No PC is needed which means less technical issues and a higher level of security. Also it works with SKOV
services like trend warnings (TW) and slaughter weight (SW). It continuously updates new functions.
For larger organisations the package includes easy connection to all farms. Monitoring and trouble shooting is easy. Survey and remote access (expert at HQ). Also easy integration with M-Tech and the full benefit of SKOV + M-Tech combination.

SKOV climate solutions for intensive livestock production
Sustainability is becoming a key focus of major food producers across the world.
SKOV Dynamic Multistep means more fans are operating at lower capacity (rpm). It runs a bank of fans up to 50% capacity, then regulated up to 100% capacity.
This equates to significant electricity savings. A large contract broiler producer in Australia could save from 30-50%. It also means improved FCR, improved average daily gain (ADG) and decreases in mortality.
Mark pointed out what FCR improvement is worth to the poultry industry. With an average reduction of 1.5 points FCR per annum worldwide gives 2,842,000 less tons of feed per year, 600,000 less ha land use and 5.1 million cubic metres less water usage.
The SKOV controller is ‘The Brain’ with AI technology – self learning, adaptive control, humidity settings and minimum ventilation (CO2). House CO2 can be monitored, indicates air quality and current ventilation requirements can be adjusted depending on levels of CO2. This allows for lower heat usage.
The good news for the poultry industry is that the poultry sector has a smaller impact on the carbon footprint compared to other meant industries and has a history of reduced output annually for feed and water usage.
SKOV’s take home message is that SKOV solutions contribute to energy efficiency and sustainability with energy efficient fan options, improved house climate with its controllers and software and insect farming as a protein (soya) replacement option.