Location: Poultry Research
Project Number: 6064-32630-010-007-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 20, 2025
End Date: Sep 19, 2027
Objective:
1. Collect environmental data to assess spatial uniformity of production conditions in commercial broiler houses
2. Collect energy usage data in commercial broiler houses to provide baseline data for computational modeling.
3. Conduct live poultry trials to evaluate effects of varying thermal conditions on the early life behavior of broilers.
4. Conduct research on broiler house environmental control strategies for to reduce operational costs for broiler production.
Approach:
Accuracy of environmental inputs and resulting control action with commercial poultry house controllers will be evaluated in commercial broiler houses in Alabama to determine their effects on electrical, fuel, and water usage. The overall system accuracy of control input measurements (temperature, static pressure, and relative humidity) will be determined and error resulting from sensor location will be assessed using a multi sensor grid. Behavioral data will be collected to determine bird responses to control inputs to assess thermoregulatory activity. Electrical, fuel, and water use data will be combined with productivity measures to develop pretictive models for broiler house efficiency.