Poultry health and producer profitability are dependent on proper ventilation in poultry houses. To ensure that a house’s ventilation system is operating correctly, employees need to understand and be properly trained on how to identify issues.
The importance of correctly training employees on various ways to identify issues in a poultry house’s ventilation was discussed by Brett Ramirez, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU) at 2023 PEAK in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Employees should be trained to pay attention
It is critical for producers to train their employees to look for abnormalities, recognize problems in and around the house and be able to effectively communicate them to their superior.
The first sign of an issue is if something abnormal is happening, Ramirez explained.
While looking for aspects out of the ordinary, Ramirez recommended that employees should be trained to use their senses to evaluate whether a house’s ventilation system is functioning or not.
For example, assessing the weather is important when evaluating a house’s ventilation.
“Whatever is going on outside the house will be affecting the inside of the house,” he said. “The relative humidity will change on the inside of the house as the weather changes outside.”
Ramirez explained that the spatial distribution of temperature and how the temperature behaves over time in the barn can reveal how the ventilation system is performing. Temperature sensors should be placed in an area that gives an accurate representation of the environment.
Bird distribution was noted as a method to determine if air is being distributed properly through the house.
“Observe bird distribution without disturbing them. Are they evenly distributed? Or are they clumped together? Are they avoiding one spot in the house? Looking at the animals is so important and is often overlooked,” he added. “Usually, the birds will give a good indication of what’s going on in the environment. Hens are the best ventilation sensor.”
Dust collection could be a factor affecting ventilation systems. Employees should be trained to keep fans, shutters, light traps, inlets, heaters and other equipment clean daily, as well as perform routine maintenance.
In addition to observing the environment, it is critical to train employees how to read the sensors on ventilation monitoring systems, and what an abnormality in the data looks like. “We need to know what the components of the system are and if the sensors are reading reasonably. Checking the sensors numbers against reference numbers is recommended,” Ramirez said.
