Chapter 1-Introduction

The goal of the poultry house evaluation service is to identify areas where there may be potential for reducing energy costs and, in some cases, increasing income to the producer through improved production. It is most advantageous for the producer to focus on those features of the buildings that have the best potential for generating a positive return from any improvements that may be made. This focus may vary from farm to farm.

At each farm, the PHES team looks at various features and components of the poultry houses that may affect energy costs. Upon completion of the on-site evaluations, a written report is prepared for each participating grower. The report identifies items that may contribute to excessive energy use; suggests possible improvements; estimates the cost of improvements and the associated energy savings; and provides an estimated cost-recovering/payback period for each of the suggested improvements.

Although the evaluations are done on a few selected farms from each complex, the participating farms are chosen so that they represent a sample of the different housing systems used by all the growers supplying the same complex. As a result, many of the areas of improvement noted in the houses evaluated by the Poultry House Evaluation Service (PHES) are applicable to similar houses managed by other growers.

Table 1.1 - Overview of the improvement options recommended

Note: Estimated savings will vary from farm to farm, and, because of interactions, are not necessarily cumulative

An overview of the improvement options recommended are shown in Table 1.1. The results of the PHES evaluations were presented at the Southern Poultry Science Society annual meeting in Atlanta, GA (January 2009); and presented at the Poultry Science Associationannual meeting in Raleigh, NC (July 2009).