The global poultry market is expected to grow from $319.2 billion in 2019 to $645.7 billion by 2030. This growth is a result of population growth, rapid urbanization, and greater purchasing power.

This massive demand for poultry has fuelled the need for mass production. Poultry farms are increasingly looking at scaling up their operations and driving more efficiencies to meet the increasing demand. Today, more and more players are also venturing into poultry farming to tap into its enormous growth potential. As a result, it is also becoming competitive, and SOPs are getting more complex with higher customer expectations.

However, many poultry farmers struggle with operational inefficiencies and challenges resulting from lower yield, increasing labour unavailability, accidents, increased bird mortality, and enforcing SOP compliance. For example, several critical environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, light intensity, ammonia) must be monitored continuously on the farm.

Improper monitoring of these vital environmental parameters and lack of timely interventions can result in lower yields and increased bird mortality. These tasks are labor-intensive and prone to operational errors, potentially leading to disastrous consequences for chickens and farm workers.

So, how can modern-day farmers increase profitability with higher yields, lower bird mortality, and improve operational efficiencies?

Challenges faced by modern-day poultry farmers
Poultry farming is a challenging business that demands time, effort, and focus. Below are some of the common challenges faced by poultry farmers worldwide.

Maintaining an optimal farm environment
Several vital parameters, like temperature, humidity, light intensity, and concentration levels of gases like ammonia, play a crucial role in determining poultry output. Ensuring that these parameters are at their optimal levels in a manual setup becomes challenging.

• Temperature: Chickens are sensitive creatures that require an ideal temperature to remain healthy. They cannot naturally cool their bodies as humans do through sweat glands. A rise in their body temperature could result in productivity loss and increased mortality. So, the temperature within a farm should be carefully monitored and adjusted depending on the climatic conditions outside.
• Humidity: Controlling humidity levels in a manual setup is quite tricky. The relative humidity in a poultry farm should be between 50% and 70%. A low relative humidity can agitate chickens, creating stress. On the contrary, a high relative humidity raises ammonia levels in the air resulting in poor air quality.
• Light intensity: It is estimated that 16 hours of light with good intensity is required to boost egg production. Farmers must ensure that their chickens are exposed to adequate light in all seasons. But, it is challenging to keep track of time and to adjust the intensity levels manually.
• Ammonia levels: Cleaning, composting and waste management are the few mundane tasks entailing farm workers. They must be performed periodically to prevent air from being polluted with high concentrations of harmful gases like ammonia. It is because high ammonia levels are harmful to birds and farm workers. It affects the overall growth of birds by decreasing their body weight and survival potential.

Keeping track of feed and water consumption
Keeping track of birds’ feed and water consumption is essential for optimal growth and health. Fresh and nutritious feed must be provided in the right amounts at specific intervals. The challenge lies in ensuring that all of these parameters are checked.

Labour availability
While the poultry sector is seeing unprecedented growth, labour availability remains a significant challenge for farm owners. This could result in operational inefficiencies and loss of productivity. It is because, in a manual setup, all crucial metrics will have to be constantly tracked by farm workers to ensure that all SOPs are correctly followed.

Manual, time-consuming processes cause errors
Farm owners and employees spend significant time monitoring the birds and the farm. Manually managing a poultry farm is not only time-consuming and costly but is also labor-intensive. Also, the critical metrics captured manually are prone to errors that could significantly impact the farm’s profitability and operational efficiency. It makes things more difficult for farm workers as it requires them to be on a constant vigil.
Manual poultry management also increases bird mortality as the process is prone to operational errors that could disrupt chickens’ feed and water consumption levels. This decreases egg production, increases the chances of falling prey to diseases, and can ultimately result in increased bird mortality.

Disaster management
Poultry farms are densely packed with birds and are more susceptible to accidents and sudden outbreaks of infectious diseases. Thousands of chickens are killed worldwide due to accidents each year. They occur in a split second and cause considerable damage by the time farmers begin to intervene.

Status quo will not work – A smart IoT-driven poultry management system is the need of the hour for modern-day poultry operations
To tackle all of the above challenges, poultry farmers need a smart poultry management system. An IoT-driven smart poultry management system can help poultry farmers improve operational efficiencies and increase profits while reducing costs and resources. It comprises several components (sensors, software) that automate farm operations and cloud platforms for monitoring and data-driven decision-making.
IoT-driven smart devices automatically monitor and control the farm’s vital environmental parameters, including temperature, humidity, light intensity, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide levels. In addition to controlling the farm environment, the system is also effective in capturing key metrics such as bird weight.
These metrics are essential in developing a feed plan, detecting infectious diseases, and preventing accidents.

Benefits of a smart poultry management system:
There are many advantages to having an IoT-based poultry management system. Below are some of the rewarding benefits it offers to farmers.

Remote monitoring of all vital environmental parameters
With an intelligent IoT-based poultry management system, all environmental parameters can be controlled with one click. Farm owners can:

• Check the temperature in their farm virtually at any time and ensure an optimal climate is maintained.
• Check the moisture levels and ensure that an ideal relative humidity is kept.
• Keep track of the hours their chickens are exposed to light.
• Keep track of ammonia levels and make appropriate interventions.

Effectively track feed and water consumption
Chicken weight is an essential metric in determining the feed plan. The system accurately captures the average weight of birds, which can be accessed through a cloud platform. This way, chickens can benefit from a unique feed plan that promotes their overall growth and well-being.

Improve bird health and decrease bird mortality
When all the vital parameters affecting birds’ health are controlled, there will be less room for infectious diseases. The overall bird health improves, producing excellent meat quality. Also, the farm can remain illuminated for extended periods increasing egg production.

Improve operational efficiency
A smart poultry management system accurately captures and records data collected from various sensors. This information is stored in a cloud platform and is used to make decisions that lead to improved operational efficiency. For instance, frequent rises in ammonia levels could indicate that the cleaning operations could be performed more effectively.

Less labour-intensive and cost-effective
Since the system is constantly monitoring and recording data onto a common cloud platform, farm workers can save a significant amount of time manually tracking every aspect of the farm. It is beneficial to farm owners as it reduces their dependency on people to a large extent.

Prevent accidents
Accident prevention is better than timely intervention. With intelligent IoT devices in place, accidents can be prevented even before they are triggered. For instance, the system activates the battery-operated alarm system in the facility in case of a power failure. It can save chickens from dying from suffocation.

The ORNITHON Difference

What is ORNITHON?
ORNOTHON is a game-changing IOT-driven smart poultry management system fully designed and developed by Denvik Technology Private Limited’s passionate engineers. It has an end-to-end poultry management capability that helps farmers increase productivity, improve profitability, and lower bird mortality rates.

How does it help poultry farmers?

• ORNITHON helps monitor all the vital parameters of the farm, including temperature, humidity, light intensity, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide concentrations.
• Accurately captures bird weight, making the process less labor-intensive and improving bird health.
• Prevents birds from dying from suffocation during power failures by triggering an in-house battery-operated alarm system.
• Alerts farm owners and workers through calls and SMS if any parameters deviate from their optimum levels.
• ORNITHON generates and sends daily status reports with all the key parameters accurately recorded.
• Helps visualize the whole gamut of information and make informed decisions.

With ORNITHON, one can avoid the stress of being under constant vigil. It helps meet all the required SOPs. Farmers can respond to the alerts sent by the system, take appropriate actions, and reap the financial benefits the system brings to their business.