Winter is Here – Are you Prepared?
When temperatures drop, every weakness in a barn becomes noticeable. Air leaks, poor airflow patterns, and excess moisture quickly translate into higher fuel costs, stressed birds, and uneven performance.
According to Gabriel Gagné-Marcotte, CEO of Energy Solutions Air :
“When we talk about litter condition, the critical period is always around 18 to 23 days old birds. This is the window where we must focus our efforts to ensure a good end of the flock.”
The 3 Biggest Winter Challenges
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Moisture and Litter Problems
- Wet litter favorizes a more friendly environment for diseases such as inclusion body hepatitis (IBH), enterococcus cecorum (EC), and infectious bursal disease (IBD).
- More diseases will lead to more condemns and performance loss, ultimately impacting profitability.
- Litter acts like a sponge, helping to balance moisture in the barn. But when it’s overused or relied on too heavily, problems start to appear. The litter becomes compacted and overly moist, creating conditions that are much harder to correct later.
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Heat Loss and Air Leaks
- Uncontrolled air entry generates cold spots that can force heaters to run longer or for the wrong reasons.
- Cold drafts and stress can be observed by unevenly distributed birds.
- Even small leaks can affect air distribution patterns or effectiveness of standard air inlets setup.
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Poor Air Distribution
- Proper negative pressure gives fresh air enough speed to travel across the barn and mix with warm air instead of dropping near the inlets.
- Without proper negative pressure, cold air slows down too early and mixes with the inside air too quickly. This creates water droplets and favorizes decline in litter quality near the air inlets.
- These cold spots turn into microclimates, leading to uneven growth, inconsistent litter quality and reduced flock performance.
Winter Readiness Checklist
- Inspect and seal barn leaks. Adjust air inlets openings.
- Maintain negative static pressure between 0.06 and 0.12 WC to ensure proper air mixing. Adjust settings according to barn width to optimize airflow distribution.
- Clean and inspect fans, inlets, and sensors.
- Monitor humidity and litter condition daily (target below 65 percent humidity).
- Adjust the minimum ventilation stage proportionally with the measured humidity.
ESA’s Top Recommendations for Winter Efficiency
Obviously, we believe in what we do. While it is possible to maintain excellent air quality over a typical winter flock with the associated fuel costs, we strongly believe that a heat exchanger is a better solution for ventilation. Not only can it deliver fuel savings of around 50%, but it also provides an all-in one tool that helps improve litter quality. Additionally, it reduces the burden of balancing airflows, inlets, static pressure, etc. In short, instead of simply following the bare minimum ventilation curve, we can explore a tool that helps optimize ventilation rates and overall barn performance.