Lighting launched for the poultry industry
LED lighting specialist, Greengage Lighting, has launched the world’s first LED light bulb designed and manufactured specifically for the egg and broiler segments of the poultry industry.
This light bulb dramatically reduces lighting-related energy consumption by up to 90% and incorporates important animal welfare benefits, says the company.
According to the company, the Glo Agrilamp offers significant technology and environmental benefits over existing lighting solutions for the poultry industry. It has been developed in collaboration with Noble Foods, the largest supplier of eggs and egg products to retailers and manufacturers in the UK. Over the past 4 months, Noble Foods has been lead tester of the Glo Agrilamp, installing it across three of its sites, reaching a total of 30,000 hens.
During testing, the new LED lamp has been fine-tuned to achieve the perfect balance of light output and colour-rendering index for housed poultry environments. Levels of infrared, which can have a destructive impact on hen behaviour, have been significantly reduced compared with incandescent light bulbs and the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL). In addition, the Glo Agrilamp has been designed to vibrate less than CFLs and is fully dimmable, creating a dusk-to-dawn environment, as well as reducing heat emission by 50%.
Early tests at Noble Foods show that optimum LED lighting is helping to maximise egg production and the behavioural responses of poultry. It reports that at its rearing site, there has been a marked improvement in chickens finding their feed earlier, which has led to their body weights being above average. There has also been an initial 0.5% drop in mortality rate. In Noble Foods’ free-range and colony sites being tested, the birds also appear calmer with reduced levels of pecking and aggression.
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