A. Introduction
As poultry production systems become increasingly automated, monitoring systems are
being integrated with control systems to provide growers with real-time and historical
information on how various systems such as environment control, feeding, egg handling,
and water are performing. The use of buildings that are 400 or more feet in length and
which may be from hundreds of feet to miles away from the farm office presents a
number of technical problems to the farm manager who wants to carefully monitor and
control the conditions in poultry houses.
The evolution of electromechanical and electronic equipment used in poultry facilities
has been continuously progressing. The reason is simply economics. Monitoring and
control systems greatly reduce labor costs. They can provide improved environmental
conditions and air quality, improved broiler performance, and opportunities for improved
management. For example, it is sometimes desirable to provide a feeding in the middle
of the night. Lights and feeders can be scheduled by the control system to introduce this special event. Some ventilation control systems provide hourly house temperature
targets. This allows for the house to be cooled at night to maintain daily house
temperature targets during hot weather. Automatic control systems, if properly used,make flock management more consistent, since humans tend to forget.
A distinction is made between electronic and electromechanical devices. An example of
an electronic device is an environmental controller with one or more temperature sensors and one or more relays that are used to activate equipment. An example of an
electromechanical device is a conventional thermostat, which is a temperature activated
relay used to turn on or off equipment such as heaters or fans as air
temperature varies. Either of these example devices can be used to operate a fan. The
type of control system used will also affect the troubleshooting options and approaches
when problems arise.
Table 11.1 lists the operation and use of electromechanical and electronic components
which are typically found in poultry production facilities. The common feature of these
11.2 items is their ability to turn a piece of equipment (fan, heater, feed auger) on or off according to some set point or schedule based on temperature, time, feed level, etc.