Location: Poultry Research
2018 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Water supply rates for recirculating evaporative cooling systems. Newly constructed poultry houses use increased ventilation rates to further improve cooling and have resulted in increased water usage. Recent droughts and increasing municipal water costs have highlighted the need for proper planning and design of water supply systems to ensure peak demand is met. Few estimates of water use are available for recirculating evaporative cooling pad and fan systems, and design guidance has emphasized planning for extreme temperatures, resulting in excessive capacity recommendations. Historical weather data from 732 weather stations across the continental U.S. was used to estimate evaporation rate for differing levels of system efficiency. Results of this analysis show that water supply rates for areas with dense poultry production including the Southeast, Delmarva Peninsula, and Iowa ranged from 3.3 to 4.2 gpm/100,000 cu. ft. air flow volume.
2. Species-specific lighting for broiler chickens. Commercial poultry operations have adopted alternative lighting systems to replace traditional incandescent light sources. New lighting technologies offer the ability to tailor lighting systems according to the specific spectral sensitivity characteristics of poultry. Providing a lighting environment that accounts for the specific characteristics of poultry vision may improve bird welfare and production efficiency. This study examined live performance and carcass yield in male broilers provided lighting from two different LED light sources (red-supplemented vs. un-supplemented) with intensities adjusted to either human spectral sensitivity (lux) or poultry spectral sensitivity (clux). No differences were observed in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, and mortality among main effect treatments or interactions. The data showed that broad spectrum lighting sources should not be expected to influence live performance or processing yields and design of lighting systems and programs is primarily an economic decision driven by capital and operation costs.
Review Publications
Olanrewaju, H.A., Miller, W.W., Maslin, W.R., Collier, S.D., Purswell, J.L., Branton, S.L. 2018. Influence of light-sources and photoperiod on growth performance, carcass characteristics and health indices of broilers grown to heavy weights. Poultry Science. 97(4):1109-1116.
Purswell, J.L., Linhoss, J.E., Edge, C., Davis, J.D., Campbell, J. 2018. Water supply rates for recirculating evaporative cooling systems in poultry housing. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 34(3):581-590.
