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Windrowing for Litter Quality Control

Windrowing allows the natural metabolism of bacteria present in the litter to cause a partial composting process that generates enough heat to destroy many pathogenic bacteria and microorganisms. Litter management between flocks is crucial to ensuring a healthy environment for chicks and will help to reduce potential health problems. Windrowing allows the litter to be…

Flock Uniformity in 3 Simple Steps

Flock uniformity is crucial to good performance in a breeder flock. It starts with what and how much a bird eats each day – assuming the feed contains all the proper nutrients, we should focus on delivering the nutrients to each bird equally. A flock uniform in size comes into production better, peaks higher, and…

Cage-free Layer Husbandry Best Practices

The switch to cage-free layer housing isn’t a new one, and definitely hasn’t been an easy one. We scoured the internet to compile a list of practices and recommendations to help you meet welfare standards and still maintain healthy, profitable flocks. Feed In cages, feed is wasted when birds overeat from boredom. In cage-free systems,…

BigTom Turkey Drinkers – Europe Sees the Difference

There are no Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey dinner traditions in the Old World, nevertheless, turkey meat spread its fame and now, there is a number of European countries like Italy, UK, and Poland who are historically holding a lead in EU turkey production and a few new producers like Germany, France, and Spain are gearing…

High Pressure Fogging – Another way to keep cool

When we talk about evaporative cooling, most people think first of cool pad systems. Today, however, we want to highlight the less well known but more versatile evaporative cooling that comes from fogging systems. First to clear up a little confusion of terms: Fogging, misting, and sprinklers. Some people use them interchangeably but there is…

Evaporative Cooling – Make heat stress less stressful

The hottest part of the year can create many challenges for growers, especially those with larger birds. Air speed is the first defense we have against heat stress, but after the outside air gets above the skin temperature of the birds (usually 95°F/35°C), it actually speeds up the discomfort of the bird, rather than alleviating…

Air Speed – What you need to know

During extremely hot summer months, it’s crucial that we provide chickens with as comfortable an environment as possible to avoid heat stress. Humidity is often much higher during summer months, both inside and out, so we should provide cooler, drier air for birds to find relief. Similar to dogs, chickens don’t have the mechanism to…

Dealing with Mortality: Incineration Vs. Composting

Of course every farmer wants all of their animals to live to achieve their full and delicious potential, but despite our best efforts sometimes we may end up with some livestock that is not so, well, alive. When faced with mortality in the herd or flock a host of issues come up, not the least…

Combating Seasonal Infertility Through Environment

Seasonal infertility – defined in terms of either embryo loss or abortion – is a problem that many producers face every year. But why is this a problem, and how do we limit it? In the early days of hog production, it was normal for sows to only produce one litter per year, farrowing in…

Swine Ventilation – Choosing a Fan

There are several types of ventilation options that can be used, some more common than others. In the US, where the majority of pig production is done in just a handful of states, all of which suffer cold, blustery winters, negative pressure ventilation is the most common system. In areas where climate is more temperate,…

Swabbing Water Lines – A Better Level of Water Awareness

We know that biofilm is a tricky thing. It grows quickly, harbors bacteria, protects that bacteria from cleaning agents, and then releases those bacteria back into the water, potentially causing severe health issues. We clean and sanitize regularly to try to keep it controlled, but how can we know how much bacteria are actually inside…

Val Watering – The Original

For almost 40 years, Val Watering has been the industry leader in closed poultry watering systems. Old but gold, this video still speaks to the value, quality, and dependability you've come to trust from VAL-CO. We stand behind our product. We stand behind our customers. We always will. https://youtu.be/oqcJ9-nWa0I

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The Ultimate Poultry Watering Guide

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