te-lSwicafordctobef 14, 1995 PREPARE FOR HEAT STRESS NOW Dennis E. Buffington Professor And Head Dept, of Ag & Bio Engineering » Now is the time to begin prepa rations for heat stress relief for your birds. Why now? You’re probably saying, ‘The miserable hot weath er of this past summer is now his tory and we have seven or eight months before we have summer weather again” or you may ask, “Now is the most pleasant time of the year with respect to the weath er, why do I need to worry about heat stress relief?” I repeat, now is the time to pre- pare for heat stress relief! If you don’tdo know, when will you? Do it now while the experiences of this past summer are fresh in your memory. If you wait, you will be preoc cupied with plowing snow and thawing frozen pipes within sever al months. Then you are going to be deep into preparing income tax es and then working around the clock at planting season. The next thing you know, summer is here and your birds are suffering from heat stress. Now is the time! The goal of any plan to reduce heat stress effects is to provide an environment condu cive to high productive efficiency for the birds. When under a high degree of heat stress, a chicken will reduce feed intake and expend energy to maintain constant body temperatore. The expended energy would otherwise be available for useful production. As you know, other problems associated with heat stress in addi tion to a decline in rate of gain are declines in feed efficiency and in reproductive efficiency and an increase in disease susceptibility. Of course, there is always a serious threat of mortality if the heat stressing conditions are not abated. Before investing lots of dollars in an expensive fan-and-pad eva porative cooling system, there are many less costly approaches to consider for reducing the damag ing effects of heat stress. Closely examine your ventila tion system. Ventilation involves removing air from inside the poul try house and replacing it with out side air. The ventilation may be natural (caused by wind and temp erature forces) or mechanical (accomplished by using fans). The operating efficiency of a ventila tion fan can be reduced 30-50 per cent by the builoup of dust on fan blades or by shutters that do not freely operate. Regardless of how well a venti lation system has been designed and installed, the system will not • 24.5 cc two-cycle Robin engine • Quick-Feed Poly Line Head • Shoulder Strap • Tool Kit • Weight: 8.6 Lb. Modal N 8251 GRASS TRIMMER/BRUSH CUTTER • 24.5 ee two-cycle Robin engine • Robin atrelght shaft • Quick Feed Poly t'*' Line Head • Shoulder Strap • Tool Kit • Weight: 5.6 Lb. 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Discuss the requirements fra* your desired ventilation systems with a reputable equipment sup plier. Ask your poultry friends about the improvements they have made to their ventilation systems and learn from their successes and failures. You may be interested in using a system involving misting nozzles or foggers to increase evaporative cooling within your poultry house. The requirement for any misting system to work properly is to have the ventilation system properly designed, installed, and main tained. Therefore, it is important to rj^rnr' H eUP ROBIN HEDGE AND GRASS TRIMMERS “As Good As The Best and Better Than The Rest” Ask Any Owner N8F251 ASS TRIMMER/ BRUSH CUTTER /Jfr *■ Cumberland Co. Blue Mountain Small Engine Repair Newburg, PA 17240 717-433-8388 focus upon appropriate improve ments in your ventilation system before considering a fogging sys tem. Again, consult with a reput able supplier and other poultry producers to get the necessary spe cifications for a misting system. Lastly, don't forget about the building itself. If you are relying upon natural ventilation, it is important to have sufficient open areas in the side and end walls. You may want to consider mov able panels that can be removed in warm periods and then replaced during cold periods in order to save energy. Of course, the use of retractable curtain systems offers many potential benefits for poultry producers that need to be considered. As you think about building modifications, you cannot think only about the summer heat stress relief, but you must also consider the energy requirements asso ciated with heating in the wintertime. Now is the time to prepare for heat stress relief for your birds. 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