Minimizing Wet Litter Problems During Hot Weather

Thank you Dr. Brian and Dr. Mike, Very informative article. In Pakistan during monsoon it becomes very difficult (almost impossible) to control Temperature and R/Humidity by evaporative cooling system. we suggest farmers to hang of jute curtains inside the house at some distance from Pads above the bird's level, and it is very helpful to control R/Humidity to some extant, as it absorbs the moisture as well as force air to flow at birds level to increase cooling effect.

Lovely article. The critical points have been put down in very simple and clear language. I have found that most flock managers wrongly think that the higher the R.H, cooler the temperature in the shed. I also find that many people use the fogging system inside the sheds without running fans, not realizing, as the authors here have implied, that this is the best way to raise the R.H. levels and increase both the moisture in the litter as well as heat stress that the birds are already going through. Another practical reminder in this article is the mention that if the R.H. inside the shed goes above 80%, evaporative cooling does not work. It is high time the message contained in this article reaches everyone who plans to use the evaporative cooling system.

I am glad you found our article informative. One of our biggest problems related to poultry houses is most people don't fully understand humidity and evaporative cooling.

very informative article about relative humidity during hot and humid weather.In our country Pakistan we use air cutter in houses to increase the air velocity because the area reduces and air velocity increase to the extent that the birds feel comfortable. In my point of view during hot&humid cooling pads must be adjust on timer not on temp through this we can reduce the humidity in house.

You really can't control humidity by placing pads on a timer. Cooling and humidity go together. For every one degree cooling (1 c) the humidity will increase 5%. So unless you let the pads dry out enough to reduce cooling you will not reduce humidity. To let the pads dry out typically takes more than 10 minutes so placing pads on a 10 minute timer typically does not allow pads to dry out enough to reduce cooling and humidity. Here is a newsletter on the subject. https://www.poultryventilation.com/sites/default/files/tips/2009/vol21n7.pdf If you want to minimize the negative effects of evaporative cooling pads should not operate unit 30 C and a house should have an air speed of 3 m/sec or better Michael Czarick