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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Mississippi State, Mississippi » Poultry Research » Research » Research Project #427273

Research Project: Developing Improved Housing, Equipment, and Management Technologies for Commercial Poultry Production

Location: Poultry Research

Project Number: 6064-32630-008-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 1, 2014
End Date: Jul 29, 2019

Objective:
Improve production efficiency of poultry growers through the reduction of energy consumption, alternative energy, improved housing and equipment design, and advanced control and decision systems.

Approach:
Energy usage for housing systems and management schemes will be measured with developed instrumentation including; power and gas meters, activity sensors, and environmental monitoring systems. Alternative energy sources will be explored as ways to offset gas fuel (propane and natural gas) to heat poultry houses. Methodologies and instrumentation will be developed to measure the efficiency of poultry house designs (including insulation types and leakage rates) and equipment systems (including radiant heater efficiency). Instrumentation will be used to gather more data types towards the development of better control and decision systems.