Send us Fan Mail

Egg prices can fall faster than your feed bill, and that’s when “normal” nutrition habits start burning cash. We sit down with Curtis Novak, PhD, Director of Poultry at Alltech, to get practical about what layer farms can do right now to reduce feed cost per ton without accidentally crashing egg production, shell quality, or livability. Curtis brings both bench science and field experience, and he doesn’t dodge the uncomfortable reality that some operations are forced to consider pulling older, lower-producing flocks earlier than planned.

We dig into the decision tree Curtis uses with producers: start with the biggest cost drivers like energy, fat, and protein, then tighten formulation by thinking in amino acids instead of just crude protein. From there, we talk feed additives with a hard ROI lens. Which products protect gut health and reduce losses from issues like E. coli, and which ones can be paused when the only goal is survival? Curtis also explains why enzymes often belong in the “do not cut” category because they’re relatively inexpensive and can unlock nutrients that lower total diet cost.

We also zoom out beyond nutrition, because management and data decide whether any diet works. “You can’t feed yourself out of poor management” becomes a real on-farm standard when ventilation, water, feed delivery, or wet litter problems drag performance down. We discuss how accurate egg counters and better flock data help you spot row-by-row issues faster, and why investing in pullet quality and uniformity sets you up for profitable long-cycle layers out to 90 to 100 weeks.
Contect with Curtis on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-novak-3961b8a2/
Subscribe for more producer-first conversations, share this with a farmer or nutritionist who’s feeling the squeeze, and leave a review so more poultry teams can find it. What’s the hardest cost decision you’re facing right now?

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Sales - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Send us Fan Mail

The International Egg Foundation is building an infrastructure of hope across nutritionally disadvantaged regions — and the humble egg is at the center of it.

When a teacher reported her students were getting loud, wild, and "naughty" after a school started serving eggs, that complaint was actually proof something was finally working. Children who'd been running on empty now had enough protein to act like kids again.

In this episode, Brandon Mulnix sits down with Cassy Price, the first dedicated staff member of the International Egg Foundation (IEF), to unpack how the global egg industry is building sustainable 400 to 1,000-bird farms that turn parents into entrepreneurs while feeding children who need it most.

In this episode:

• The naughty kids story — what a teacher's complaint revealed about nutrition and energy
• How IEF builds 400 to 1,000-bird farms that create local entrepreneurs and feed school programs
• The Honduras First 1,000 Days of Life program — and how one 400-bird barn became a 3,000-hen operation
• The Eswatini breakthrough: hard-boiled eggs preserved for 30 days without refrigeration in extreme heat
• How younger leaders and employees can plug into meaningful philanthropy through the egg industry

About Cassy Price: Cassy Price is the first dedicated staff member of the International Egg Foundation, based in Shropshire, England. She transitioned from the International Egg Commission to lead IEF full time in 2022 and oversees programs across 10 countries.

Resources:

• Cassy Price on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassy-price-98a8b153/
• International Egg Foundation: https://internationaleggfoundation.org
• Prism Controls — farm automation and controls technology for poultry producers: https://www.prismcontrols.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=poultry_leadership&utm_content=ep46

The Poultry Leadership Podcast is hosted by Brandon Mulnix, Director of Sales and Marketing at Prism Controls. New episodes every Wednesday.

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Sales - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Send us Fan Mail

Most leaders in the agricultural industry know AI is coming. Far fewer have actually figured out how to use it in a way that makes their day-to-day leadership better — not someday, but this week.

In this solo episode, Brandon Mulnix shares what happened when he stopped treating AI like a search engine and started using it as a thinking partner. Over the last quarter, he used AI to prepare for a difficult performance conversation, build documents he had no formal training to write, automate a weekly reporting process he'd been doing by hand for years, and finally get his best ideas out of his head and into finished work.

He also responds to something a team member said that stopped him cold: "You didn't do this. AI did this." His answer — the Michelangelo and the chisel — is the most important thing in this episode.

Brandon walks through the Three Doors Framework — Thinking, Drafting, and Research — and gives you one specific action to take before Monday. He covers the tools he actually uses (Gemini and Claude, both free to start), addresses every fear that's keeping leaders on the sideline, and closes with the servant leadership question that changed how he thinks about all of it.

If you manage people, walk houses, run reports, or lead a team in the poultry or egg industry — this episode was built for you.

Mentioned in this episode: Gemini — gemini.google.com (free), Claude — claude.ai (free to start)

Want to talk to a human about getting started with AI? Call or text Brandon directly: 616-265-0752 Email: bmulnix@prismcontrols.com

The Poultry Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Prism Controls — 45 years of technology that helps farmers sleep at night. Learn more at PrismControls.com.

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Sales - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com