7 poultry production technologies from PEAK 2023

My favorite part of attending trade show like PEAK 2023, held in Minneapolis April 11-13, is running into friends and former colleagues that I haven’t seen in years. My second favorite thing is to learn about new technologies and products designed to drive continuous improvement in broiler, turkey and egg production and processing. Here are seven products and systems at the exhibition that intrigued me:

• Pertinent eco-solutions have a number of insect control products with plant-derived active ingredients which can be used in poultry facilities to kill flies, darkling beetles and even mites. The compounds, which are a combination of essential oils and solvents, can be used with birds in the barn and are said to be effective against eggs, larvae and adults and can be used to kill red mites.
• The Bird Control Group Avix Autonomic laser system is designed to keep birds away from areas like feed mills, poultry houses and fields with ripe crops. The system was demonstrated at the Minneapolis Convention Center where PEAK 2023 was held. The system can be programmed to shine the laser on specific areas and then moves randomly in those sensitive areas where you don’t want to allow birds to roost, nest or forage.
• WTF Equipment LLC exhibited its turkey waterer feed pan combination which was developed for use in tom finishing houses. This video demonstrates how water that the turkeys spill while drinking falls into the feed pan below where it is absorbed by the feed and consumed by the turkeys. The turkey growers who invented and now sell the system to other producers say that the floor of the turkey house stay dryer and that bird performance is improved.
• Nanolike exhibited its feed bin level monitoring system. The system utilizes a strain gauge attached to the leg of the feed bin to measure strain on the metal leg caused by the weight of the feed in the bin. Algorithms are used to convert the strain measurement to a feed volume estimate for the bin. These estimates can be used to optimize the feed mills delivery schedule.
• Ancera is using a new tool, CRISPR-SeroSeq, to identify every Salmonella serotype present in a sample without trying to isolate each organism and this technique can be used to determine the dynamics of the various serovars present. This serovar data can be paired with the history of interventions used on a flock on the farm or on carcasses in the processing plant to monitor efficacy and validate control steps.
• Agrimesh Technologies uses artificial intelligence to not only react to changes in a poultry house, but also utilizes the weather forecast to anticipate how the weather will impact conditions inside the barn. The designers say that the system will manage the house to achieve an optimal solution balancing house conditions with energy use to achieve outstanding bird performance.