Caring for Air Conditioning – Keeping cool cells… cool
Summer time heat. Everyone’s least favorite seasonal challenge. If only cooling the poultry farm was as easy as cooling our homes. Alas, there are very few barns where you can close up the windows and blast the A/C, but most barns can garner a few degrees of relief thanks to evaporative cooling systems. Pad cooling systems are […]
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Mitigating Heat Stress in Livestock
We’ve all seen it before – it’s the middle of the day and your broilers are hunkered down on the floor, wings slightly spread, and panting fast. Your birds are too hot, and are spending their energy trying to cool themselves rather than eating, drinking, and growing. In swine we see similar actions – pigs […]
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Poultry Watering Lines: Maintenance Simplified
Water is arguably the most important factor in raising healthy chickens, turkeys, or ducks. Water needs to be clean and fresh at all times, but the reality is that birds are dirty, and often water lines are, too. A little bit of maintenance can go a long way in making sure that the water supply […]
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Managing Effects of ABF Production on Equipment
Over the past few years producers, integrators, and manufacturers have worked hard to develop an antibiotic-free production system that works. Many of these systems use a series of supplements such as probiotics, prebiotics, essential oils or additional electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals to encourage healthy intestinal flora and build resistance to disease. However, with time, we’ve […]
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Best Management Practices for Broiler Brooding
If you haven’t seen it already, the Chicken Farmers of Ontario recently released a short video detailing some Best Management Practices of broiler brooding. Throughout the video, Dr. Scott Gillingham stresses the importance of stockmanship, biosecurity, and attention to detail. We’ll summarize some of his main points below, but strongly encourage you to check out […]
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Brooding Healthy Birds – A Pre-Placement Checklist
Chicks are dependent on their environment to survive the early days of life. Because they cannot regulate their own body temperature, they require a warm brood chamber and easy access to food and water. The down feathers on chicks offer poor insulation and they will quickly lose heat through radiation (to the air), conduction (contact […]
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10 Interesting Facts about Chicken Vision
Whether in commercial flocks or backyard coops, chickens are endlessly fascinating. While we might never understand what all those quirky head nods mean, we can get a better sense of how chickens see the world with these 10 interesting facts about chicken vision. A chicken’s eyes are about 10% the entire mass of its head. […]
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Stress-free Swine Handling – Knowing signs of stress
Stress on pigs during transport can cause losses; not just pig losses, but it can adversely affect the meat quality. Stress in transport can cause meat that’s too soft and pale or too dry and firm. This stress begins with the movement out of pens or barns so stress reduction should be front of mind […]
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Stress-free Swine Handling – Understanding pig behavior
Pig handlers should understand pig behaviors to move pigs with as little stress as possible. Most pig behavior can be attributed to natural instincts. Pigs are herd animals and find being isolated from the group stressful. They have a strong tendency to follow each other while maintaining visual and bodily contact and prefer to be […]
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Winter Prep: Choosing A Heater
Forced air heaters have largely become obsolete in poultry houses as producers have switched to brooders and tube heaters. These radiant heating options deliver heat directly to the floor and the birds at a much more affordable rate. Radiant heaters are significantly more efficient, offer drier litter, and create a heat-storing reservoir for the birds […]
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Brooder Cleaning: A Step-by-Step Guide
Brooder cleaning is one of the most important tasks done on the farm. Brooders rapidly lose heating efficiency when they are dirty. Routine maintenance ensures you get the most out of your heating equipment and prevents fire hazards. Brooders should be cleaned and inspected before every flock. Regardless of what they look like on the […]
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Attic Insulation – Stop Burning Money
Attic insulation is beneficial year-round, though it’s something that is often overlooked. During cold weather, hot air produced by heaters and livestock quickly rises to the ceiling. If the attic insulation is lacking, uneven, or missing entirely, that warm air will escape the barn and cause heaters to run longer and more often. With fuel […]
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House Tightness: The Best Winter Prep
House tightness should be the first thing on your winter prep checklist. Heat lost through building air leaks causes the heaters to run excessively and waste fuel. Air leaks can also cause cold air drafts that can chill livestock, create cold spots on the floor, and result in poor floor conditions. Houses can be divided […]
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