In a comparison at the University of Arkansas, researchers have demonstrated that after the contribution of yearly strain improvements and associated nutritional and health programmes are taken into account, modern broiler housing with better environmental-control capability is important for optimising weight gain, feed conversion and livability.

According to a paper in the latest issue of Journal of Applied Poultry Research by Y. Liang in Fayetteville and co-authors there and at Mississippi State University, poultry producers have experienced increased production efficiency that is partially attributable to advances in housing technology and instrumentation. This advancement, coupled with continual strain improvements in commercial broilers for growth rate, feed efficiency and livability, results in realised annual improvements in productivity.

In their study, they present data on performance collected between 2004 and 2008 from a commercial four-house farm at the University of Arkansas Applied Broiler Research Farm. Pre-retrofit years were 2004 to 2005 and post-retrofit years were 2006 to 2008.

Performance improvements due to housing and equipment changes, including replacing curtain-sided with totally enclosed housing systems, were quantified by measuring the difference between this farm and the industry live performance for corresponding years.

Reference

^{Liang Y., M.T. Kidd, S.E. Watkins and G.T. Tabler. 2013. Effect of commercial broiler house retrofit: A 4-year study of live performance. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 22(2):211-216. doi: 10.3382/japr.2012-00601}

Further Reading

You can view the full report (fee payable) by clicking here.