Basic information
The chicken industry is committed to environmentally responsible and sustainable chicken production practices to ensure a healthier planet. After all, it takes a healthy planet, fresh water, fertile soil and clean air to raise and produce chicken. For the chicken industry, sustainability means being responsible stewards of land, water and feed management, and maintaining and advocating for the humane treatment of our most important asset: our chickens. Genetics and nutritional improvements in broiler production have been extremely important to the efficiency of poultry meat production,however, the full genetic potential of broilers cannot be reached unless the proper environment is maintained in the broiler house. The fast growing, modern broiler lines are more dependent on proper environmental conditions than birds from lines raised just a few years ago. Improvements to poultry housing systems in developing countries have focused on providing an environment that satisfies the birds' thermal requirements. The environment provided to poultry flocks has a great bearing on flock performance and profitability. The basic environment consists of feed, lighting, air (temperature, humidity, pathogen concentration and ammonia), water and litter quality
A part of my company's chicken house design, for reference only
Effects of environment on poultry farming
Heat stress is the major problem in poultry farming. Being a tropical country the temperature reaches over 40°C during summer and is not suitable for poultry farming. Hot and humid weather conditions and poor management practices increase the mortality in flocks, reduce the growth and make poultry production to uneconomical level. In traditional farming, during the summer farmers have to either continue taking flocks compromising with poor performance in feed intake, growth rate, weight gain, FCR (Feed Conversion Ratio) in broilers along with mortality or totally close the business to avoid all these risks that could disturb the hired labour and staff. Controlled environment poultry farms can overcome this critical summer situation These farms when equipped with highly mechanized system of automatic chain feeding and nipple drinking systems make the environment quite conducive for poultry production by getting continuous production
Series of products to serve the poultry farm fully, click the name to learn more
1. Steel structure poultry house, opening type for hot countries and close type for cool countries
2. Poultry hatching equipment’s capacity of eggs up to 120,000+ to be hatching house
4. Chicken feed processing equipment from feed crushing and mixing to stock to feeding chicken
6. Egg processing equipment from automatic egg collection to packing egg to trays
7. Chicken slaughtering equipment from slaughter to vacuum package
9. Other poultry farm equipment are coming soon...
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Factors that aid good environment
Well-constructed poultry house
Broiler houses are constructed with wood or steel trusses and supports. The houses are clear span structures from side wall to side wall. The trusses are engineered to support the weight of the roof without the need of support posts that make it harder to catch birds and clean out the house. The floor is typically compacted dirt that is covered with bedding material (wood shavings, peanut hulls, rice hulls, sand, etc.). House dimensions are usually 40-50 ft wide, 400- 600 ft long with 8 ft high sidewalls. To improve ventilation and reduce heating costs, most houses now have dropped ceilings. Dropped ceilings protect the trusses and ceiling insulation by acting as a vapour barrier. Dropped ceilings reduce the ceiling surface area and allows for the installation of ceiling insulation to reduce heat gain in during hot weather and heat loss during cold weather. Modern houses are well insulated with blown in cellulose or fibre glass insulation to reduce heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. Insulation values of at least R-21 and R-7 are recommended in the ceiling and walls, respectively
Most houses are constructed with solid side walls rather than having open sides with curtains. This provides better insulation, reduces air leaks, provides better light control and allows the house to be heated more efficiently. The use of solid side walls provides a smooth surface compared to open sides walls with posts. This improves air speed during tunnel ventilation that will increase the cooling of birds next to the wall. Another trend in new construction is the building of larger houses. Houses as large as 70 x 600 ft have been constructed. If these houses prove to be cost effective, it is likely that most new houses will be constructed to larger dimensions in the future
Ventilation
Ventilation delivers fresh air and removes excess heat, moisture and undesirable gases from the broiler house. A typical ventilation system in a broiler house consists of fans, air inlets, evaporative cooling system and controller/thermostats. Houses are designed to deal with both cold and hot weather extremes
Cold weather ventilation
during cold weather, negative pressure ventilation is used to provide fresh air, remove moisture and minimize heat loss. Fans exhaust air out of the house creating a slight negative pressure inside the house. Fresh air is pulled into the house due to the negative pressure and enters through planned air inlets that are installed either high on the house side wall or in the ceiling These inlets are designed to direct air across the ceiling allowing it to mix with warmer air located there and to heat up before coming into contact with the birds. Newer houses use computer controllers to determine when the fans operate and for how long. The combination of controller and air inlets allows control of how much air enters the house and where it will enter and allows good air quality to be maintained while minimizing heating costs
Controlling house environment
Almost all modern broiler houses rely upon electronic controllers. Through the use of controllers, it is possible to keep house temperatures within five degrees of the desired temperature regardless of outside temperature. This makes it possible to keep the birds comfortable so they are not diverting energy from growth to stay warm or cool. The controller monitors house environmental conditions and adjusts the heating, ventilation and cooling equipment as necessary to keep temperatures constant. Today, controllers can monitor temperature in six or more locations throughout the house. Humidity can also be monitored, although adjustments to heaters and fans are usually done on a temperature basis. As the house temperature fluctuates, the controller will turn on the brooders or fans as needed. The controller operates equipment in the house including: brooders, fans, inlet machines, curtain machines, evaporative cooling systems and lights. Many controllers also allow house conditions to be monitored remotely
Advantages of poultry farming in controlled environment
Poultry Farming in Controlled Environment has brought a great change in poultry industry and is rapidly becoming popular among broiler producers due to its following significant advantages
1. The temperature remains consistent round the clock providing very conducive environment to the broilers
2. The temperature can be brought down by 10°C to 15°C in controlled environment farm as compared to the conventional farm and makes environment more comfortable for birds
3. In conventional farming the broiler production in summer is almost stopped and only four flocks could be taken whereas in controlled environment farming 6-7 flocks could be raised
4. Being controlled environment the incidence of diseases could be minimized and cut down the cost of vaccine and medication of $ 2-3 per bird as compared to conventional farming
5. Mortality has been decreased to 2 to 3 percent in controlled environment farm as compared to 10 percent in conventional farm
6. In controlled environment farm only one person at daytime and one at night time are sufficient to look after a flock of 35,000 birds. Whereas conventional farm nearly 6-8 persons are required to manage such a flock
7. In controlled environment farm a broiler flock is ready for market in 37 days as compared to 45 days in conventional farm
Purpose of poultry farming in a controlled environment
1. To regulate the ventilation inside the house
2. To minimise the temperature fluctuation in the house
3. To maintain proper relative humidity inside house
4. To maintain proper lighting inside house
5. To obtain better FCR in birds
6. To obtain uniform air movement
7. To lower the medication cost
8. To lower the mortality in the birds
Marketing channels
The marketing channel of broilers is as follows
Farm (producer) → middleman → wholesale → retailers →end user (consumer)
The role of middleman is to identify a farm and negotiate the price. In some cases he provides Day Old Chicks and other farm inputs (feed, etc.) to the broiler and layers farmers and then agree to buy back the mature birds from them
Farm requirements and management
In a Controlled Environment Farm, inputs including farm equipment like drinkers, feed trays, brooders, and feeders and other items like feed, vaccines & medicines, rice-husk or saw-dust, water and electricity etc. are required. To achieve good production following practices should be performed under the supervision of an expert starting from arrival of the chicks to marketing of broilers and laying of hens. The following gadgets or equipment must be put in place
1. Diesel heaters can control the low temperature.The high temperature should be controlled with evaporative cooling system
2. Automatic nipple drinking system
3. Automatic feeding system
4. Diseases can be controlled by scheduled vaccination and medication
6. Sanitation and disinfections program should be strictly followed during and after the completion of one flock
7. Feed intake, body weight, FCR and mortality should be recorded carefully
8. Proper channels are recommended for Marketing of final products (broilers)
Production assumptions
Assumptions used for the product mix are as follows
Human recourse requirements
To look after the feeding, vaccination and cleaning operations at the farm skilled worker required. Following manpower is required for a farm of 35,000 birds
Equipment and machinery requirements
The present information and rates were recorded during our random visit to some of our customers’ farm in Nigeria. List of farm equipment, which should be needed are as follows
1. Main feed line system
2. Feed pan system
3. Nipple drinking system
4. Ventilation system
5. Pad cooling system
6. Minimum ventilation system (air inlets)
8. Controlling equipment
9. Heating System
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