We are proud of our costumers.
From family farms to commercial farms, we supply them all - anywhere in the world. For ten thousands of users Big Dutchman is THE supplier of housing equipment of any kind. And it makes no difference whether the farm is raising ten thousand, twenty thousand, two hundred thousand or two million animals. To us it is quality that matters, not only quantity. We always have a workable solution for any possible problem. And many of these have been successfully installed already. Here you will find some concrete examples:
LED lamps for poultry growing – the dimmer is what’s important
Saving money with the new LED technology for poultry houses
For the broilers on Dirk Bockhorst's farm, the morning starts leisurely. As if the sun were rising, the lights are slowly turned on in the houses located in Emstek, Lower Saxony, Germany. Happy clucking can be heard all around. Until warm light illuminates the houses half an hour later. This light does not come from standard 40 watt light bulbs but is provided by high-quality LED lamps. A special dimmer which ensures that the birds are not stressed and does not interfere with other technologies used in the poultry house is included.
Farmer Bockhorst replaced his light bulbs about a year ago. The old power-guzzling bulbs had to yield and make room for low-energy LED bulbs. One lamp costs more than 20 euros, but the new technology has a significantly longer service life and saves a lot of energy. Bockhorst has amortised his investment after one year already. He spent 4,000 euros on the new lamps – and saved nearly the exact same amount in energy costs up to today. After this first year, he will thus save 4,000 euros annually, increases in the price for electricity not included.
New LED technology for poultry houses
The change-over from old to new required less effort than Bockhorst had expected. “I replaced all light bulbs myself,” reports the 42-year-old farmer. Naturally, the high-quality LED bulbs fit the standard threads for electric lamps used in the poultry house. Big Dutchman supported Bockhorst during the installation of the centrepiece of the new system.
This centrepiece is the dimmer. Without this dimmer, the whole system would not work. Farmer Bockhorst would not save nearly as much money without it. The module is installed in the service room of each house and connected to the farm computer. The computer controls the dimmer and indicates when and with which intensity the lights should be on.
Big Dutchman only sells the LED technology with the dimmer developed in the company’s headquarters in Calveslage. Compared to simpler devices, the Big Dutchman dimmer does not create any flickering so that the animals stay very calm, explains product manager Nils Neugebauer. His team put a lot of effort into the development of the dimmer to ensure that the device does not blow fuses by error or cause PC crashes – a common problem with standard dimmers.
Growing poultry without stress
Another unique feature of the Big Dutchman dimmer: It can be controlled steplessly down to 0 percent. This characteristic ensures that additional cost-savings when the technology is used in poultry houses. Most other dimmers turn off at a percentage of 20 to 30, says Neugebauer. This can cause stress for the chickens.
Meanwhile, Dirk Bockhorst's broilers do not even know what stress is. His stock is doing as well as ever after the replacement of the lamps.
In addition to the new lighting system in the poultry house, all other equipment has also been purchased from Big Dutchman. This link will lead you to an overview of our systems for poultry growing.
Poultry house for 40,000 broilers expands the production branch
Poultry growing in new house equipped with Big Dutchman poultry systems
Ulrike and Norbert Martkfort from Westladbergen, Westphalia, Germany, are experts in the area of poultry growing: They built their first broiler house ten years ago. The couple has now expanded this production branch with a new house for 40,000 broilers – also in the light of knowing that their eldest son is planning to continue his parents’ family business. Approximately 300 visitors recently followed the invitation for an open house to see the new poultry house as well as the poultry systems provided by Big Dutchman.
The new, 20 x 90 meter large building is located right on the farm, guaranteeing short distances. In accordance with the effective requirements of the German Animal Welfare Act (Tierschutzgesetz), the window area amounts to three percent of the house floor area.
Poultry growing in Big Dutchman poultry systems
The Marktfort family employs a partial depletion system: About one third of the broilers is moved out after 32 days with a weight of approximately 1,600 grams. The remaining two thirds stay in the poultry house until the end of the growing period. The Marktforts always have reliable numbers on their broilers’ weight thanks to Big Dutchman’s bird weigher Swing 20. The scale has been accepted fully by the birds, resulting in plenty of weighings and thus precise weight data.
Feed is supplied via Augermatic, a classic Big Dutchman product for poultry growing. A total of four feed lines have been installed. Fresh drinking water is of course also supplied: The broilers can access fresh water at any time from a total of eight drinking lines. The Marktfort family took care to comply with animal welfare requirements in this regard as well: The drinking lines are equipped with the required 3,000 nipple drinkers.
Fresh air enters the house via the air inlets in the side walls. At one end of the poultry house, a 12-meter exhaust air tower with 14 chimneys was constructed. With this tower, the Martkfort family has met one more requirement for the construction of livestock houses which regulates an exit speed of 7 m/s.
You can find our housing systems for poultry growing here – have a look around!
Spain: Innovative poultry house project on Spanish television
Modern egg production with enriched colony systems
Rubén Martínez García, innovative egg producer from the Spanish municipality of San Lorenzo de la Parilla, owns two poultry farms 150 kilometres south west of Madrid. On one of these farm, Martínez García keeps 300,000 laying hens in enriched colony systems. The housing equipment: the Eurovent 2240-EU, a new generation of enriched colony systems developed by the German poultry equipment supplier Big Dutchman. The second farm is still in the construction phase and will have places for 75,000 layers upon completion – free-range egg production in this case. Martínez García has decided to install Big Dutchman equipment in this house as well.
Outstanding feature of the Eurovent 2240-EU: The feed trough is now situated inside the system so that the hens can feed from both sides of the trough. With this improvement, the poultry equipment supplier satisfies its customers’ request for wider systems: Group sizes of up to 54 hens per compartment significantly lower the costs for effective egg production.
The state-of-the-art poultry house project for enriched colony systems is an eye-catcher – and not only from the outside, as could be witnessed on Spanish television recently: The TV channel Castilla La Mancha Televisión (CMTV) visited the installation and broadcast an informative television feature. You can watch it here!
Rubén Martínez García created a website with detailed information on his company and modern egg production – please click here to visit it!
New poultry house for 65,000 laying hens
Belgium: Visit a modern enriched colony system
The Vanbelle family from Ardooie in Belgium constructed a new poultry house for 65,000 laying hens and invites anyone interested to an Open House on Friday, 25 January 2013. The visitor will see an enriched colony system solution that is not too common: The farmers decided to keep the birds in a Big Dutchman small aviary system, equipped with Eurovent-EU fittings, which is the poultry equipment supplier’s enriched colony system for the EU market. The small aviary differs from Eurovent-EU for example in that the tiers are five centimetres higher.
The Belgian farmers also proved their innovative approach with the choice of house lighting. The energy efficient LED light tubes installed inside the house ensure optimal lighting for birds and humans: As only the inside of the system is lighted, the aisles are dark, thus calming the birds and in turn improving control conditions for the farmers.
The house is situated approximately 50 km west of Ghent. Address:
Brabantstraat 77
8850 Ardooie
West Flanders
Belgium
Uitnodiging Open Dag Famiele Vanbelle: Please find an invitation to the Open House in Dutch for download here.
Inauguration: two of ten houses ready, 39,900 rearing places
New houses with poultry systems for breeder management
The Agrargesellschaft Schwarz mbH has put into operation two new houses for rearing 39,900 broiler breeders – a first step in the direction of a closed system to be set up. After the inauguration celebrated with approx. 250 guests in Schwarz in North-West Germany, the breeder management project is quickly to be continued: the construction of eight further houses for the production of hatching eggs is in full swing, planned for a total 80,000 bird places. Regarding poultry systems and poultry feeding systems for all ten houses, the partners fully rely on Big Dutchman.
„This is a big sign of confidence put in us, we are very thankful,” said Big Dutchman sales manager Werner Meckelnborg on the occasion of the inauguration festivities on the farm of Christian Heine and Henner Schwecke. The partners in this ambitious project are planning to produce broiler hatching eggs and pullets in their own rearing houses. The last house for the production of hatching eggs is supposed to be put into operation in the middle of 2013.
The rearing houses each have a length of 25 x 100 meters and are entirely equipped with Big Dutchman poultry systems. To get a good impression of a nice project please check the photo gallery further down.
Otherwise: more detailed information on Big Dutchman poultry systems for breeder management can be downloaded here.
