Red Lights Improve Production
By Karen Dallimore
Features Business & Policy Trade Poultry Production ProductionThe higher wavelengths of red light penetrate the skull and brain tissue more easily to stimulate estradiol production
Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879. The story goes that he came up with the idea because he was afraid of the dark, but the reason doesn’t matter much anymore. What matters now is that the incandescent bulb that has served us so well for 135 years is being removed from the market in Canada by the end of 2014 and we need a replacement.
What are the options? For those involved in the poultry industry, light emitting diode (LED) bulb lighting can be a good alternative. Not only does LED offer energy savings, it may also offer production advantages.
Alex Thies, from Thies Electrical Distributing Co. Inc., owns the company in Cambridge, Ontario, that has now designed a 60 per cent red LED bulb suitable to withstand agricultural use. His father started the development of the bulb three years ago in collaboration with University of Guelph researcher Gregoy Bedecarrats.
In a current study being done by Master’s student Mikayla Baxter at the University of Guelph, these light bulbs are being tested on a large scale in a commercial barn housing 45,000 birds in three-tiered enriched cages.
The extra red light has been shown to improve production in laying hens. As Baxter explained, birds have extra-retinal photoreceptors deep within the brain. Red light contains higher wavelengths, which penetrate through the skull and brain tissue more easily to stimulate estradiol production, which in turn translates into lower age at first egg as well as longer and higher peak production than for hens kept under the shorter wavelengths of green or blue light.1 The flock at Dykstra’s Poultry Farm was monitored from 19 weeks of age to the end of their laying cycle at 70 weeks of age. There were approximately 250 bulbs in the 22,500 square foot barn.
Baxter, under the supervision of Dr. Gregoy Bedecarrats, analyzed egg production, egg quality, body growth, estradiol and cortisone levels and spectral output.
In summary, it appears that the 60 per cent red spectrum LED bulb promoted egg production by approximately two per cent without any adverse effects on the growth and welfare of the birds when compared to fluorescent lighting (CFL bulbs).
Baxter called this increase “biologically and financially significant” when she presented her findings to the 2014 Poultry Industry Council Research Symposium in Guelph, Ontario. Her findings indicated a peak egg production of 98 per cent and a persistency of over 90 per cent before the end of the study timeline. The birds averaged 345 eggs over 364 days and although the shell quality decreased as the birds aged this proved to be controllable with calcium supplementation.
She did also mention, however, that she ran into some trouble with the design of the bulb. The spectral output did not change over time but the bulbs began filling up with water during 1800 psi industrial cleaning. It turns out that the high-pressure water was entering the bulb through the pigtail socket wires. The bulb has since been re-designed with a one-piece aluminum housing to make it dust and waterproof in the barn environment to withstand cleaning and disinfecting.
As for energy consumption, another cage trial indicated a significant difference between light sources, with incandescent using more energy than CFL (compact fluorescent), and both using more energy than LED bulbs.
Baxter will be continuing her research, presently monitoring a third flock of pullets to further validate the results.
While the 60 per cent red spectrum LED bulbs are CSA and UL approved and now commercially available for purchase, Thies, the bulb developer, will continue to work with Manitoba and Ontario Hydro to obtain Energy Star approval for the bulbs so that their PowerSmart programs will recognize them.
Thies is also looking for farms to participate in additional pilot projects involving green spectrum LED bulbs. “A flat layout board inside the bulb is populated with 10 1-watt LED’s,” he explained. “For a 10W bulb we can add whatever colours we like.” For layers, the red spectrum LED has 6 red, 2 green and 2 blue bulbs on its layout board. For broiler farms though, green should be the major colour, using 6 green, 2 blue and 2 red bulbs. Thies welcomes enquiries from farms willing to test the efficacy of both red and green spectrum LED bulbs.
Doing the Math
In poultry barns, the majority of lighting is compact fluorescent or T8 flourescent but LED has been making big inroads over the last two years.
What would be the savings be from using CFL or LED bulbs in your own barn?
LED bulbs can be inserted into the same fixtures (E26 sockets) as incandescent or CFL bulbs. The bulb itself costs approximately $49 but it has a lifespan of 7 years, in comparison to CFL bulbs ($4) or incandescent ($.40) which last for roughly one year.
A layer barn will have the lights on 16 hours per day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year, a total of 5824 hours per year. A broiler barn will be about 12 hours per day for 42 days per crop, 6 crops per year, plus 5 days for clean out and barn prep at 8 hours per day, for a total of 3064 hours per year.
As a sample comparison, consider a small layer barn with 100 bulbs and electricity at $.175/kWh:
CFL:
- Cost of bulbs: 100 x $1 = $100/year
- Energy usage: 14 W/bulb x 100 bulbs x 5824 hours per year = 8153.6 kWh/year x $.175/kWh = $1,426.88/year
LED:
- Cost of bulbs: 100 x $49 = $4900/7 years = $700/yr.
- Energy usage: 10 W/bulb x 100 bulbs x 5824 hours per year = 5824 kWh/year x $.175/kWh = $1,019.20/year
1 Baxter et al., 2014, Poultry Science 93:1289-1297
Print this page