March 10, 2009

Greengage Lighting has launched the world's first LED light bulb - Glo Agrilamp - designed for the egg and broiler segments of the poultry industry.

The new light bulb will reduce lighting-related energy consumption up to 90 percent and incorporates important animal welfare benefits, Greengage said.

The Glo Agrilamp was developed in collaboration with Noble Foods, the largest egg supplier in the UK. Noble Foods had installed the Agrilamp for testing in three of its sites, reaching a total of 30,000 hens.

During testing, the new LED lamp was fine-tuned to achieve the perfect balance of light output and colour-rendering index for housed poultry environment, said Greengage.

The lamp had significantly-reduced levels of infrared, which can have a harmful impact on hen behaviour, was designed to vibrate less than Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL), is fully dimmable, creating a dusk-to-dawn environment, and could reduce heat emission by 50 percent.

Early tests at Noble Foods show that optimum LED lighting helps maximise egg production and the behavioural responses of poultry. The rearing site reports a marked improvement in chickens finding their feed earlier, leading to an above-average body weight.

There was also an initial 0.5-percent drop in mortality rate and the birds also appear calmer with reduced levels of pecking and aggression, Greengage said.

Glo Agrilamp also has a guaranteed lifespan of 25,000 hours, and Greengage will be offering leasing packages to large farms to reduce up-front costs.

Nigel Youd, Group Environmental Manager for Noble Foods, said Noble have committed to installing 7,000 bulbs in a new site being built in Nottinghamshire which will house one million birds, and might take a further 20,000 bulbs as part of a retro-fit.