How Lubing misting systems can reduce heat stress and promote high-welfare poultry production

MISTING SYSTEMS can prove invaluable in keeping temperatures in poultry sheds under control when the outside weather warms up.

The climate in the UK is warming, with extreme examples of hot weather including an all-time high temperature of 37.8C recorded in Heathrow in 2021, and last year, a record 31.3C in Northern Ireland.

The Lubing Top Climate System is a quality stainless steel system that benefits from several innovations ensuring it emits a fine mist of highly filtered water vapour, rather than spraying droplets over birds.

Advantages at a glance

Fast cooling in the house without any wetness.
Increase humidity.
Effective dust binding.
Better feed conversion.
Optimum performance.
Less aggression, natural animal behaviour.
Operate several houses with one pump

Use of the system for pre-clean soaking and disinfection.
Lubing medicator to spray in medicated drinking water (for prevention and therapy of respiratory diseases).
Automatic operation in different houses possible.
Dust suppression on free-range egg farms.

For both broiler and egg farms, these extremes in temperature and higher average temperatures over spring and summer can present a challenge to high-welfare production.

Broilers can be particularly susceptible to heat stress as they approach their target weight.

Start temperature	36C	36C	36C	36C
Start humidity	10%	30%	50%	70%
End temperature	18C	24C	29C	33C
End humidity	85%	85%	85%	85%
Cooling capacity	18C	12C	7C	3C

Maximum Cooling capacity

Ventilation systems can sometimes struggle, particularly if they are older or have not been designed with higher average temperatures in mind.

The Lubing Top Climate System can help when temperatures outside sheds exceed the desired set temperature in the birds’ environment.

It uses straightforward natural evaporation to bring temperatures down by about 6C-7C below what they might be with ventilation alone.

The stainless steel system employs a filter to ensure water is clean before being pumped through into the shed environment at high pressure – 1,000psi to be exact.

A distinguishing factor is the 0.2mm aperture nozzle that produces fine five-micron droplets which immediately evaporate into water vapour before reaching the floor, maintaining a dry litter.

As a contrast, some systems operate with larger aperture nozzles running at lower pressure, which can result in a spray rather than a mist.

Performance

In addition to cooling sheds, The Lubing Top Climate System can help to raise the humidity of shed environments.

Modern indirect heating systems can result in shed humidity being too low for chicks in the first days of life. By introducing clean, filtered water vapour into sheds, it’s possible to safely raise the humidity to the ideal 60%-70% range that they prefer.