How an LED fixture makes cows, chickens and farmers happy

Light has a major influence on the productivity of animals kept in the stable. The right lighting also plays an important role in optimizing animal welfare. Agrilight develops special LED lighting for livestock farming and tells during the LED event about their findings.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

According to Jacques van der Windt, account manager at Agrilight, the company's lighting is used in every conceivable environment in livestock farming: "We provide lighting in stables in the broadest sense of the word, up to and including zoos. We develop the luminaires ourselves and also produce them here in Holland. We do this in Groningen at a sister company. We sell our LED luminaires all over the world."

High demands are placed on the fixtures in a stable, says Rob van der Meulen, responsible for R&D at Agrilight: “It is a very difficult environment. There is a lot of dust, dirt, high-pressure cleaners are used and there is ammonia in the air. A standard product will break down in a short time. Our fixtures must certainly be IP 65 and resistant to ammonia.”

But there is more to it than developing robust LED lighting for livestock farming. Van der Meulen: “It is also important to have good light distribution. By means of lenses or reflectors you have to illuminate the stable as evenly as possible. That is very important for both chicken stables and dairy stables.”

Van der Windt adds: “A broiler house is a closed system where very little daylight enters. You have to regulate everything with the lighting. If you do not distribute the light properly, all the chicks will sit in a place where it is the lightest. Then it becomes extra wet there, which leads to diseases. It is therefore essential for productivity and animal welfare that the lighting provides an even distribution.”

In addition, there are many possibilities for optimizing the light spectrum and output. “We make different luminaires for the various sectors, from chickens to cows,” says Van der Meulen. “Cows need a lot of light. Cows need between 150 and 200 lux to produce optimally. For chickens, that is much lower. And for chickens, you have to be able to dim the light without flickering. There are many differences in that.”

Applying scientific knowledge

The company also tries to use scientific knowledge as much as possible in the design of its luminaires: “We get a lot of knowledge from Wageningen, but also from other universities. What has been proven is that colour temperatures between 2700 and 5000 Kelvin produce the desired results for certain animal species.”

Both acknowledge that LED technology has already been developed a lot, although there are still steps possible towards an even better product. Van der Meulen: “We are busy looking at how luminaires can be improved. There is still something to be done with colours. And we will continue to generate more light with less power, a better efficiency.”

To test new designs in practice, Agrilight works together with a number of farmers, both in the dairy farming and the chicken industry. For example, they are looking at whether an adjusted light regime can have positive effects and whether production can be increased with new flicker-free luminaires.

And despite the broad embrace of LED lighting, there is still plenty to be done in the livestock farming sector in terms of sustainability: “There are still many stables that are lit in an old-fashioned way, because stables are built for 25 years or more. In new stables, only LED is used, certainly in the Netherlands. But in Germany and France, but also Russia and Hungary, we can still do a lot. Many luminaires are still sold there that have not been specifically developed for the stable.”