How should wet curtains be used?

The hot and humid season is coming

Every summer, there are breeding managers who cause breeding losses due to improper use of wet curtains. Through years of on-site management experience at home and abroad, the author summarizes the precautions for the use of wet curtains during high temperature and high humidity in summer, and encourages everyone.

1、Wet curtain cooling principle

Wet pad cooling is the process of using the principle of water air conditioning to change the high temperature and low humidity air passing through the wet pad into low temperature and high humidity air. Theoretically, the cooling effect of the wet curtain is best when the humidity is below 85%, so that the moisture entering the house is the least. But the theoretical data only tells us how to manage the operation under normal conditions. How should we manage the environment of the chicken house in the extreme high temperature and high humidity environment?

First we review the physiological characteristics of poultry. According to research, the body temperature regulation mechanism of chicks is not fully developed before the age of 10-12 days, so they rely more on the heat in the external environment to help the body maintain physiological development. Therefore, chicks are most sensitive to wind speed at this time and have the best cooling effect.

As the age of the chicken increases, the temperature outside the house increases. When the difference between the temperature inside the house and the target temperature is greater than 4°C, the author’s personal experience believes that it is usually the safest to enter the longitudinal ventilation at this time (according to local conditions), and comprehensively consider heat dissipation. As well as the air cooling effect, when the outside temperature is continuously higher than 30°C and the humidity is continuously above 60%, the humidity will continue to increase when the wet curtain is used. According to theoretical data, if the external humidity exceeds 85%, the cooling effect of using the wet curtain is not obvious and the humidity in the house will increase.

How to use wet curtain to cool down in high temperature and high humidity environment

So the question is, what should I do if the humidity outside the house remains high and the temperature inside the house is still high if it encounters continuous cloudy and rainy days?

First of all, the purpose of using the wet curtain is to cool down. When the longitudinal ventilation cannot provide enough air cooling effect to the chicken, the wet curtain should be opened in time. As long as the temperature can be lowered or the temperature does not rise, you can continue to use the wet curtain. At this time, you should not pay too much attention to the humidity (at this time, it cannot be turned on at 9:00 a.m. and turned off at 5:00 p.m.).

Secondly, the opening temperature of the wet curtain should be lowered. For example: under normal circumstances, the 28-day-old broiler cooling temperature is 29-30 °C, and the longitudinal ventilation temperature is 28-29 °C. In extreme weather with high temperature and high humidity, it is necessary to reduce the longitudinal ventilation temperature and the opening temperature of the wet curtain.

Furthermore, under normal circumstances, the fan should not be excessively reduced at night. During the high temperature and high humidity season, the temperature in the house is high during the day, and a lot of heat is accumulated in the chicken body, which cannot be removed from the body in time. The number of fans turned on can be reduced according to the actual situation.