Sprinklers Offer Flock Cooling Benefits and Water Conservation Opportunities

Tim M. Asbridge : That’s a frequently asked question, and I don’t have a personal experience yet. Similar sprinkling concept was tested many years ago (2001) by Hongwei Xin’s group, who was at Iowa State University for many years, on cooling laying hens. One of their field trials conducted in an A-frame cage facility demonstrated benefits of partial surface wetting on egg production during hot days when maximum temperature reached above 90 degree. In a nutshell, sprinkler nozzles at 8 ft above aisles and 10 ft apart operated 10 sec every 10 min when temperature rose about 90 F. Hens in the upper two decks laid 5.6% more eggs in treatment than in control during the trial period. No difference of eggs produced from hens in the lower two decks. This is obviously a challenge for water droplets to reach and cool birds uniformly in vertically stacked battery or A-frame cages. Authors also mentioned potential floor wetting during an initial test of 15 seconds every 10 min interval, with empty floor differing from floor-raised broilers. The good news is that cooling occurred whenever hens were wet in hot days under the reported air below 1 m/s (200 ft/min) between aisles. One just needs to be aware that water evaporates slowly at low wind speed. Hope this answers your question! Yi Liang (yliang@uark.edu)

Yi Liang Yes it does, Thanks