Broiler farmer upgrades from Orion® to Fortica® system

Broiler farmer upgrades from Orion® to Fortica® system

This year broiler farmer Ramon Harmes of Klazienaveen in the province of Drenthe (NL) has upgraded from the ORION® system to the new touch screen Fortica® system. The broiler house systems were installed by poultry house automation specialist Kosse Staltechnieken, which the Harmes family has relied on for the past 25 years. The Harmes had four broiler houses, but they recently razed two to make room for two brand ones with the innovative new Fortica® system. The other two barns are still in use and have been converted to Fortica®. Two additional large broiler houses are currently being built. In total, the agricultural enterprise will have space to house 248,500 broilers, with the day-old chicks being held 6 to 8 weeks. The goal is transformation into a sustainable poultry farm. In keeping with this plan, electricity is generated by solar panels and the barns will be heated with energy produced by burning manure.

The ventilation system for the new barns consists of a combination of a heat exchanger and cross-flow ventilation. The ventilation is based on negative pressure in the barn, with fresh air from the outside entering through inlets in the side walls. The barn air is exhausted through ventilation stacks on the roof. All the ventilation and heating systems are centrally controlled via the user-friendly Fortica® system.

Automatic feed and water delivery are also used. The Fortica-FWS, in combination with the Hotraco FWS-4N feed weigher, provides the right amount of feed in the barns. The production process is further optimised with energy-efficient LED lighting.

To maintain a good overview of the six broiler houses a Fortlink® is installed in broiler farmer Harmes’ office. This establishes a secure connection between all the Forticas on the farm on one side and an external router, which provides Wi-Fi and internet access, on the other. The Fortlink® collects data from all the connected barns, displays it on a large screen and forwards it to a connected PC or the app via the internet. The latter makes it possible for the broiler farmer to control and read out all the Forticas from a PC or, via the Fortica app, from a tablet or smartphone.