Location: Poultry Research
Project Number: 6064-32630-010-010-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2026
End Date: Jun 30, 2030
Objective:
1. Develop methodologies to integrate environmental and geospatial data streams in order to optimize housing design across the various domestic poultry-producing regions of the United States, thereby reducing utility and water costs for poultry producers.
2. Conduct research on advanced poultry-house environmental control strategies aimed at achieving measurable reductions in utility and water usage.
Approach:
The objective of this research is to optimize housing design requirements for poultry-producing regions across the United States to reduce utility and water costs for poultry farmers. The outcomes of this cooperative effort will enhance the design, construction, and operation of poultry housing and strengthen the efficiency and competitiveness of the U.S. poultry industry. This work will integrate environmental data (such as weather patterns and storm-damage indices) with geospatial data (including the incidence of water features, local topography, and land-use types) to support a comprehensive site-selection analysis. These integrated data streams will be used to evaluate current poultry-house design and construction practices and their corresponding effects on energy and water demand and efficiency. Building thermal models will further be employed to assess alternative construction strategies that may improve energy and water use efficiency within poultry housing systems.