Establishing Modularized Environmental Measurements and Analyzing and Applying Environmental Information for a Windowless Broiler House in Taiwan

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to apply wireless sensor modules to measure the environmental conditions in a windowless broiler house. An environmental index monitoring system was established that automatically estimated the temperature-humidity index (THI) and temperature-humidity-velocity index (THVI) according to the collected database. Finally, prediction of the relationships between the THI or THVI and the feed conversion rate (FCR) was studied. Nine sets of temperature, relative humidity, and wind velocity sensors were used for measuring the inside environment. An additional set was located outside the broiler house. The environmental database used this system of wireless sensors for collecting environmental information, quantifying the environmental indices, and establishing a warning system. The system automatically estimated the THI and THVI according to the database and presented the results in a user interface. Two areas of the broiler house were arranged for daily measurement of feed consumption and individual weight of the broilers for two experiments. These data were applied to calculate the daily weight gain and FCR. The first experiment was conducted from 9 September to 9 October (from summer to autumn) in 2016, and the second experiment was conducted from 3 November to 9 December (from autumn to winter) in 2016. During the experiments, there were no errors in the messages sent by the environmental database and warning system. These results serve as important references for predicting the FCR as well as the THI and THVI. The THVI of the first experiment and the THI of the second experiment predicted the FCR with a good relationship. The results show that the indoor and outdoor THI values could be higher than the standard values. In the FCR statistical analysis, the FCR of the second experiment was lower than the FCR of the first experiment, and they were both lower than the criterion FCR. This implies that opportunities exist for improving the broiler house environment in this subtropical climate. The results of this study could become an important reference for predicting the FCR with the THI and THVI. Finally, prediction of the relationships between the THI or THVI and the FCR were conducted. The results of the second experiment (R2 = 0.8327) were significantly better than the results of the first experiment (R2 = 0.5184). Keywords: Broiler, Feed conversion rate, Temperature-humidity index, Temperature-humidity-velocity index, Warning system, Wireless sensor module.