July 7, 2025

 

Ten percent of layer farms in Taiwan have pad cooling systems, see increased revenues, research institute says

 

 

Pad cooling systems have been introduced to 10% of layer farms in Taiwan, helping to increase their revenues by about NT$15,000 (US$521) per 10,000 egg-laying hens each month, the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute said on July 3, urging poultry farmers to join the transformation to boost productivity.

 

Institute Director-General Huang Jeng-fang said that the Ministry of Agriculture has been developing techniques that could advance the process of layer breeding and chicken manure management to increase egg production and reduce contamination amid extreme weather and bird flu.

 

Department of Animal Industry Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hsun said the annual output of domestically produced eggs is about NT$34 billion (US$1.18 billion) and annual egg per capita consumption has reached 355.

 

The rearing of pullets, or young hens, could affect the production and quality of eggs, he said.

 

Institute associate researcher and veterinarian Tsai Ming-yang said that pullets' development would decide their egg-laying ability and affect egg farmers' income.

 

Traditional hen houses have low production efficiency and are susceptible to epizootic diseases due to the lack of proper biosecurity measures, he said.

 

Chicken manure accumulates under hen houses for years, leading to messy and foul-smelling environments, Tsai said, adding that there are concerns over the welfare of hens reared in such environments.

 

However, many egg farmers are old and are less willing to invest in new equipment to renovate their hen houses, he said.

 

The institute has conducted 32 on-site visits and four training sessions to promote the introduction of advanced management techniques, he said.

 

Biosecurity measures and health management methods introduced to pullet sheds proved effective in improving egg production, increasing pullets' weight by 45 g on average, Tsai said.

 

The adoption of pad cooling systems also increased the egg-laying rate from 75.8% to 89.4%, or a 13.6% rise, he said. That means the daily output value per 10,000 laying hens rose by NT$4,900 (US$170), yielding an additional NT$150,000 (US$5,208) in monthly revenue, Tsai added.

 

Advanced hen houses with smart pad cooling systems have better ventilation and can maintain temperatures at 25°C, he said.

 

They are also equipped with automatic devices that can collect eggs and record chickens' age, egg-laying rates, and feed and water consumption amounts, saving significant human labor, Tsai said.

 

Automatic equipment that can dehydrate chicken manure and turn it into granular fertiliser was also adopted, minimising fly infestations and foul smells, he added.

 

The turning of chicken manure into fertiliser generated an additional output of NT$300 million (US$10.42 million) annually, he said.

 

Asked whether the ministry would subsidise traditional hen house renovation, department official Chen Chih-wei said a NT$1.6 billion (US$55.56 million) budget has been allocated to aid the upgrading of poultry farms over three years from 2023 to this year.

 

The introduction of pad cooling systems to a farm could be subsidised with NT$10 million (US$347,222), he said, adding that about 10% of henhouses nationwide have adopted the system.

- Taipei Times