mikey
FARM MANAGER
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« on: September 02, 2008, 12:20:40 PM » |
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Poultry : Proper Climate Goes A Long Way More and more Asian farmers are becoming aware of the relevance and use of professional ventilation systems to overcome the bad odor of their poultry farms.
A major barrier to sustainable development of effective and environment-friendly poultry production is the offensive odor farms and animal houses emit. More and more Asian farmers are becoming more aware of the relevance and use of professional ventilation systems to overcome this odor problem and to further improve their production efficiencies.
This need for ventilation systems poses superior opportunities for foreign agribusiness firms to showcase their equipment to their neighboring Asian counterparts. SKOV A/S, a Danish international manufactural of climate control and production monitoring for animal agricultural production which has set up offices in Bangkok, Thailand-deems the Philippine market full of potential.
SKOV Asian Area Sales Manager Herbert Cabral said, “The Philippines has shown great increase in its economy-with the Peso winning over the Dollar and more farmers, broilers and feeders turning to efficient ventilation for their farms. SKOV used its wealth of experience and ideas to come up with innovative components and systems.”
In a country like ours, the usual choice of ventilation system often is Tunnel ventilation. This ventilation system, which takes the air in through tunnel openings (often installed with cooling pads) at one end of the poultry house and exhaustion of the air is carried out at the other end through gable fans, creates proper lengthwise airflow in the house. Tunnel ventilation is a good system when it is a matter of cooling the birds.
Nonetheless, times during production cycle occur when need for cooling to maintain optimum temperature is irrelevant, such as brooding and at night in general, where further cooling by means of the chill effect of the Tunnel ventilation can be downright detrimental for the birds and their productivity. In most areas, there will be times, day or night, when the outside temperature for a shorter or longer period will fall below the temperature comfortable for the birds.
Take a day-old chicken requiring 33°C (91°F) at a relative air humidity of 50% for instance. If the outside temperature is 24°C (75°F) and the air is headed straight into the zone taken by the birds without being heated first, the day-old chicken would find this very cold. Additionally, there will be huge disparities in the temperature when using Tunnel ventilation.
A traditional broiler house with day-old chickens may take up to 10 minutes for the air to flow from one end of the house (at air inlet) and to the other end of the house (at the gable fans), when the grower observes the requirement about the air velocity not exceeding 0.2 m/sec (0.65 foot/ sec.). The temperature and quality of the air will undergo massive changes during these l0 minutes.
From a general standpoint, the broilers will have the correct temperature if the temperature sensor of the ventilation system is placed in the middle of the building; the temperature will be too low at the air inlet and too high at the air outlet.
In principle, tunnel ventilation has its limits during the cold periods where it is not possible to maintain a sufficient and uniform temperature in the entire house. The birds huddle together during the brooding periods and eat to maintain the body temperature. This results in the grower having uneven distribution in the house which affects the litter among other things. At best, the consequences of these conditions will be that the broilers do not obtain an optimum gain and at worst, they will die.
SKOV A/S demonstrated this through their products and seminars during last year’s grandest and most influential trade fairs on agribusiness, food and aquaculture, Agrilink. “To further develop and grow, it’s critical for us to ensure our customers and international partners a spirit of mutual trust at work,” added Regional Service Manager for Asia Andrew Michael Kho, “We strive to win their trust not just once, but in all our dealings with our customers from the initial contact with the consultant to after-sales service on installed systems.”
Great demands are now made on the climate system in different livestock houses to ensure an exact adjustment of temperature, air humidity and air velocity. Birds of highly improved breeds combined with a high stocking density require a climate of precise adjustment. And if the correct temperature is not sustained, optimum productivity cannot be attained.
“When choosing ventilation systems,” continued Cabral, “It is important to choose a principle which, with due consideration of the climatic conditions, provides good possibilities of controlling temperature, humidity and air velocity, so a homogeneous production is obtained. When we look at all the factors as a whole, SKOV has gained much experience under many different climatic and production conditions over the last 35 years. Based on our experience we are able to draw up our recommendations which are listed in the below table concerning temperature, humidity and minimum and maximum ventilation. It is our experience that the grower will have the best productivity and the birds will experience the best climate, if these recommendations are followed.”
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