How technology can help improve poultry flock uniformity

An uneven flock is a familiar frustration for poultry farmers. Not only does it make management harder, but it can lead to higher rejects at the processing plant if birds are outside target weight.

The difficulty is in pinpointing the exact reasons for the disparity, which could be caused by a broad range of management factors, from temperature or ventilation settings to water or feed provision.

See also: A poultrykeeper’s guide to spotting and controlling blackhead

Assessing multiple types of information to build a picture of the root cause is tricky, as data either has to be written down by the farmer or monitored through bespoke software tied to specific systems such as shed ventilation, for example.

It was this problem that sparked the idea behind Poultry Sense, a monitoring system developed by a group of vets.

It uses a network of sensors to collect data within the shed, which can then be interpreted to assess the effect each variation has on flock performance.

Real-time flock management

The breadth of information it collects from minute to minute can help farmers act quickly to tackle the multiple causes of uneven flocks.

“The real-time accessibility of the data means farmers can be hands-on rather than having to act retrospectively,” says Alan Beynon, Poultry Sense managing director.

Information can be integrated off-farm to cross-reference or benchmark against other data. Potentially, it could play a role in disease management and predicting the cause of disease outbreaks. 

The system uses the “internet of things” to connect low-cost sensors, which automatically monitor animal weight, feed intake, water consumption and environmental factors.

This data is collated via an online hub and provides detailed and accessible analytics for farmers.

The ability to remotely monitor sheds provides an extra layer of biosecurity if a farm needs to be locked down.

“Vets can see a lot of data on the flock off-site, monitor what’s going on in the sheds, and feed back to the farmer without having to physically visit,” says Mr Beynon.

What trials have achieved

Poultry Sense is currently being trialled on five poultry farms, across 18 different sheds, and should be commercially available by August this year, says Mr Beynon.

One farmer successfully used the system to identify and correct a significant disparity in water intake across one of his sheds.

“From the sensor data, we found the water intake in the middle water line of one shed was 54% higher than from the outer lines,” says Mr Beynon.

“This was interesting from a veterinary perspective, because vaccines are administered through water, and the weights of the birds was different in different parts of the house – which related to the water intake.”

As a result of these findings, the producer adjusted lighting parameters, ventilation and chick placement, so that chicks are now more evenly spread.

“This has adjusted the differentiation in water intake to 10% higher in the central line and the flock is much more even now.”

“The system has been on farm for almost 12 months now, meaning we can look back over four cycles and see what happened in houses last winter. The ability to use this data is really exciting.”

At the end of a flock, a detailed report is generated, and a 10-point plan is created for producers to see potential areas of improvement quickly.