November saw the advent of the PIC Conference in London, Ontario, and for the first time, a new experience for the poultry lighting industry that was a surprise to us all, according to John Matcham, Head of Agriculture Glo Agrilamp.

Presentations of data from the University of Arkansas, the University of Guelph and from a number of Universities in Europe clearly demonstrated how not only the development of poultry-specific LED light bulbs will revolutionise the future of energy efficiency for producers but also the effective ways in which production performance can be improved. The real surprise was that for the first time both sides of the Atlantic agreed on how the performance is affected by light. In fact the differences in the data presented were insignificant.

So at last, Mr Matcham says, we all agree that LED is better than anything else on the market to deliver light to our flocks and not cause us any harm. It can even make things better.

Mr Matcham says he was lucky enough to be one of those invited to present to the conference and this in itself was a learning experience as he discovered more of the industry's concerns when committing hard-earned cash to a new and emerging technology.

Ahead of the IPE, he says, it is time to dispel the rumours and myths and shine a little light on the future.

Some years ago, he continues, he was approached by a major egg producer in Europe to see if it was possible to produce a light bulb that would replace incandescent and fluorescent types of lamp. The first questions were why we need a new LED lamp and what must it do. The answer, in short, is that it can do everything an incandescent light bulb can do, including dimming, but without the bad stuff like mercury and flickering.

Glo Agrilamp spent some six months studying carefully all of the available data on poultry's responses to light and saw clearly that there was more to this that met the human eye.

The company also dealt with some myths:

• Red light is calming to birds and reduces cannibalism
• Green Light improves feed intake
• Dimming offers no real advantage
• Any LED will do
• Chickens do not see blue light.

Further Reading

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You can view the article from Glo Agrilamp dispelling these lighting myths by clicking here.

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