Case study - AGRO
Case study - AGRO Slovensko s.r.o., Veľké Uľany
Subject of the contract:
AGRO Slovensko s.r.o. is a company operating poultry breeding in Veľké Uľany. They expected the HYDROfogg® system to provide a cleaner environment for the stored hens, but especially to ensure a constant humidity level in the operation and temperature control in the breeding house. High temperatures, dust and low cleanliness result in reduced hen productivity, lower laying performance and higher hen mortality rates. The expectations from the HYDROfogg® system were to create a fully automated system that would regulate humidity and temperature in a stable plane without the need for staff intervention on the one hand, and reduce the large amount of dust particles in the plant on the other. The general requirement was to “elevate” the quality and cleanliness of the environment for the hens to reduce mortality and increase egg production.
The scope of the installation included one shed of approximately 800 m2 divided into two sections. The first part, called the ‘Preparatory Hall’, was to contain a disinfection system that would spray disinfection when necessary and the second part, the main ‘Hall’, was to contain a similarly controlled disinfection system.
A further requirement was for a separate HYDROfogg® system, operating autonomously for the hall in which the chickens are housed, which should fully automatically regulate the optimum humidity and temperature levels and keep the environment as clean as possible from dust particles.
Great emphasis was placed on the safety, stability and reliability of the system and on prompt and accessible service when needed.
An important requirement was that the system should not wet the space, the stored hens and the individual components of the house.
The house is provided with air recovery in the form of fans located on the sides of each wall of the house. The estimated heat recovery creates draughts in the form of an 8x ‘ventilation rate’ compared to the standard 2x ventilation rate.
Solution:
In this case, the project was divided into two phases. In the first phase, circuits designed for a “water” HYDROfogg® system were run around the perimeter of the hall. This system was single-section and contained 48 HYDROfogg® nozzles to achieve the desired effect even with respect to the 8x “ventilation rate”, meaning that the final number of nozzles had to be able to work in line with the recovery.
The HYDROfogg® main unit was designed to be able to cover two more halls if required, i.e. to fully operate approximately 96 more nozzles.
The system is fully automatically controlled by a “thermo-humid” sensor, which monitors in real time the current humidity and temperature level in the hall and thus controls the switching on and off of the HYDROfogg® main unit.
The unit is connected to the water supply, which is treated by a 5 micron flow filter located upstream of the main water inlet to the system.
The disinfection HYDROfogg® is divided into two sections, one section relating to the “Preparation Room” and the other to the “Hall” itself.
The disinfection system is controlled by a SMART device paired with the application.
The disinfection solution is contained in a 50l container (disinfection tank) from which it is transported via an additional pump called “Feeder”.
The system is provided with a special module that periodically discharges the excess disinfection by means of “Bleed off” modules from the pipeline back into the disinfection tank, thus creating a closed system with no loss of disinfection solution.
Results of the solution provided:
The HYDROfogg® system is in the testing stage, but the results achieved during the seven day monitoring period showed some interesting facts.
AGRO Slovakia compared several statistics and monitored the behaviour of an identical number of hens within two houses, only one of which is automatically treated with the HYDROfogg® device.
During seven monitoring days, it was found that hens in the building with the HYDROfogg® system increased egg production by 10% compared to the other building. The results showed a significant reduction in hen mortality and there was an increase in hen “appetite”. These are interim results that will be evaluated over a longer period of time, but observations have shown a significantly cleaner, dust-free and more pleasant environment, as confirmed by individual AGRO Slovakia staff.
The system is now operating continuously in synergy with the ventilation system and appears to be a significant improvement in the rearing environment for the housed hens.