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
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function properly without mainte
nance and care. When a ventilation
system is not operating properly,
the results can be pockets of stag
nant air, high utility expenses,
reduced life and reliability of ven
tilation equipment, and high repair
bills.
Maybe your ventilation system,
even when operating at peak per
formance, is not adequate for your
poultry house. Now is the time to
develop design modifications for
your ventilation system so that the
changes can be completed before
next May or June.
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
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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. If
you don’t do it now, it most likely
will not be done by the time we
experience hot, humid weather
again next June.
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