LEDs in poultry farming
In his talk on "How to make chicks happy" at the 2014 Strategies in Light conference, Once Innovations president Brian Wilcox explored compelling scientific evidence for the claim that LED lighting offers economic benefits that go beyond lower energy costs to actually produce favorable results — and thus increased revenue — in poultry management and production. Here, we'll take a closer look at the poultry application.
While LEDs have an edge over other agricultural lighting choices in terms of their capacity to effectively and correctly mimic sunshine, their ability to produce a customisable, adjustable spectrum may be their greatest feature. Animals' spectrum needs and their spectral sensitivities are different from humans'. Farmers may create a lighting environment for their animals in their barns that improves health and welfare, hence improving development while decreasing energy and feed costs, by optimizing the use of spectrum, irradiance, and modulation.
The illumination of poultry barns is one of the most promising uses for agricultural LEDs, mostly because of the significant variations between how people and birds absorb, perceive, and respond to photons. LED-based technologies can take advantage of these differences to reduce the cost of luminaires, increase weight gain and musculoskeletal development, induce earlier maturity in layer chickens intended to lay eggs, enhance feed conversion, change melatonin production, increase egg output and quality, control reproductive cycles, and lengthen the reproductive life.
Tri-chromants that are sensitive to the red, green, and blue spectrum energies are humans. Human sensitivity peaks around 550 nanometers (green), and it gradually declines as it moves towards the red and blue spectrums. Humans absorb photons via the photo-pigments rhodopsin (rods), iodopsin (cones), and melanopsin, which are fully dependent on retinal reception.
A bird's retina can also absorb photons thanks to melanopsin, rods, and cones. However, they also take in photons through active photoreceptors found in the pineal gland, which is situated on top of the brain (pineal reception). Amazingly, they also take in photons via deep encephalic photoreceptors (hypothalamic reception).
Quad-chromants are domestic poultry. Fowl evolved a peak sensitivity to green at 550 nm, similar to humans. However, they also have increased sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV), red, and blue light. Their ancestry is assumed to be the cause of this. Because of the green leaves covering the tree canopies, the tropical rainforests of South Asia have a filtering effect on the light. With maxima at 450 nm (12 times human sensitivity) and 640 nm, fowl thereby evolved increased sensitivity to blue and red (4x human sensitivity). But perhaps the most striking distinction between birds and humans is that birds can see UV light with their eyes (peak at 385 nm). The causes of domestic birds' ability to sense UV light are mostly being researched. Food and flock recognition ability are the two primary suspects.
The physiology of poultry is affected differently by each hue. By encouraging the proliferation of satellite cells in the skeletal muscle, green light, for instance, greatly accelerates growth rate at a young age. Blue light raises plasma androgen levels, which promotes development at a later age. Low-frequency blue light inhibits movement. It also lowers the incidence of cannibalism among the elderly (especially in broiler chickens raised for human consumption). Due to more potent stimulation of testosterone release when used together, green and blue light encourage the formation of myofibers. Total, it has been shown that blue light may increase feed conversion by up to 4%, lower cost per pound by up to 3%, and increase overall live weight by up to 5%.
At the start of the raising period, red light stimulates and encourages sexual activity as well as raises growth rates in chickens and turkeys. Additionally, it improves motility, which reduces leg problems at the conclusion of the rearing phase. Red light decreases feed consumption per egg laid while maintaining the same egg size, yolk and albumin weights, shell weight, and thickness. Overall, it has been shown that red light may extend the peak production period, improve egg production by up to 38 eggs per hen, and perhaps reduce food intake by up to 20%.
Energy efficiency is essential for success.
A large share of total energy usage is used for agricultural lighting. Agriculture establishments are clustered in a narrow geographic region, have comparable lighting systems, are quickly modified, and react well to incentives. The agriculture industry in North America, particularly in the Midwest, has a $1 billion (billion) yearly energy savings potential, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Two nuclear power reactors are equated to that. 7% of on-farm expenditures, according to Kate Farley of the ACEEE, are associated with energy. With subsidies, grants, and other incentives, switching from incandescent to LED lighting might result in energy savings of $2000 per barn. These reductions would significantly increase the profitability of each barn for farmers.
Just think of the energy savings in the entire market. Six of the top 10 egg producers are situated in the Midwest, where there are more than 2500 egg layer factories nationwide. Each layer activity uses 800 incandescent lights on average per facility. There would be a savings of 800 lights (9W - 3W)/light 16 hours/day 365 days/year, or 28,032 kWh per operation, if these lights were replaced with LEDs. In Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana, 42% of the layer operations, there has been a reduction in energy use of 70M (million) kWh in just these three states.
Since the broiler market consumes four times as much energy as the layer market, the savings are much more noticeable. The bulk of them are found in the Southeast and South Central states, and many of them still use inefficient lighting. Based on 4 barns/farm, 132 lights/barn, 100W/light, 18 hours/day, 52 days/flock, and 5.5 flocks/year, incandescent light energy usage for broiler farms averages 271,814 kWh per farm per year.
The energy savings were calculated by Dr. Joey Bray of Steven F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas by contrasting the AgriShift LED technology from Once Innovations with current incandescent and HPS lights in a production setup. According to Bray's research on broilers, a typical broiler farm using a conventional incandescent/HPS system used 3837 kWh per flock annually. AgriShift LEDs reduced energy consumption on the same farm by more than 95% per farm each flock, to only 109 kWh. Applying this across the whole sector might result in national energy savings of 2 to 5 billion kWh, or the equivalent of one nuclear power plant's full output. See "LED agriculture solution leverages autonomous AC design" for more information about Once Innovations and AgriShift.
The energy savings for businesses that produce pork are as noteworthy. The Midwest has 1.8 million total light sockets, the majority of which are CFL, and eight of the top 10 swine states are there. The Midwest could save 540M kWh by switching to LED swine lights, which would save 52.2M kWh (CFL) - 25.2M kWh (SSL) = 27M kWh - 20 hours/day - 365 days.
Norms and discounts
High upfront costs have been a barrier despite the improved efficiency, efficacy, and reduced total cost of ownership of LED-based agricultural lighting equipment. This is partly because there aren't any performance standards for the agricultural lighting sector, which makes it difficult for consumers of LED-based agricultural lighting products to benefit from utility rebates for energy-saving incandescent and CFL lighting products used in residential and commercial settings.
Lighting performance and criteria as they relate to people in residential and commercial applications are the focus of current lighting standards. Commercial lighting goods have the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) mark, while energy-efficient consumer lighting products display the Energy Star logo. Sadly, there isn't a performance standard or label that compares for agricultural lighting equipment. Because of this, utilities find it difficult to include these devices in their rebate programs, which puts them at a clear economic disadvantage. Farmers can still receive a rebate by retrofitting general-purpose consumer and commercial lighting products for their barns (which may require enclosing them in rugged or wet-location-rated fixtures), but off-the-shelf lighting products made specifically for animals and barn environments are typically not eligible.
A program that particularly ranks lighting items in terms of agricultural performance is what suppliers and users (such as farmers) of agricultural lighting products require. Such a scheme would provide customers and power providers with the knowledge they need to evaluate farm lighting options while leveling the playing field for rebates. It may be included as part of Energy Star or DLC or even operate separately. The ideal standard would handle important performance characteristics including durability, performance, dependability, and safety and provide consistency across various utilities. A standard is already being developed, and numerous utilities have already indicated interest in participating.
driving agriculture's future
The bulk of R&D activities are now concentrated on the swine and poultry industries, but Once Innovations' technology in particular may also be used in the aquaculture, dairy cattle, and horse industries. For instance, red light is invisible to animals like swine, cattle, and horses, thus at night, the light is dimmed to a red spectrum to allow maintenance to be done without upsetting the livestock. Human hospitals adopt a similar strategy, allowing personnel to roam about at night without the use of white light that would reduce melatonin synthesis and disrupt sleep for patients. (See "Solid-state lighting brings out the real hues of contemporary healthcare" from this issue for additional information on lighting used in healthcare.)
Additionally, tailored spectra may be utilized to manage the pond habitat for fish and crustaceans. University research evaluating the impact of LED illumination on crab production are under underway, while commercial ponds in China and Belize have installed AquaShift lighting systems as an example. Over $17 billion in global market potential exists for solid-state agricultural lighting. That will only rise as LED manufacturers discover new methods to use light to improve animal wellbeing, boost agricultural output, and lower energy costs.
