Michael Vukadinovic, owner of Pavilion Farms in Victoria, Australia, established two broiler farms in 2014. These were equipped with traditional side wall inlet ventilation systems and high end European on/off tunnel fans and climate controllers. In late 2017 another two farms were completed, but with variable speed MagFans. That was Michael’s first business contact with DACS. Today he has 9 farms – 64 sheds – all DACS. Michael and his son Nathan now grow 19 million birds per annum. After completing the expansion in 2017, I traveled the world exploring the best ventilation technologies to find a better solution to the traditional side wall inlet ventilation system. Our criteria for a replacement system have been that it firstly, must improve the welfare and health of the birds, and secondly, meet my set payback and ROIC targets. In January 2019,
I installed the DACS Corona Roof Inlet system in two sheds to trial them with regards to our set criteria outlined above. The full suite of DACS equipment After a year of testing, we were convinced that the DACS Corona Inlet system met our set criteria. In 2020, we retrofitted all our relatively new 28 sheds (capacity of 1.3 million broilers) with the Corona Inlet system and closed off the sidewall inlets. In 2022, we completed the construction of a further 24 new sheds with an additional capacity of 1.6 million broilers where we have installed the full suite of DACS equipment including ACS climate and production controllers, MagFans, Corona Inlets and AddAir Water Heaters. We have been delighted with the results with the following main achievements:
1. The air environment in the sheds is a lot cleaner and enhanced air flow and distribution from the Corona Inlets have significantly improved the spread of the chickens in the sheds at younger ages so that our birds get the perfect start in health and growth.
2. Due to the very accurate climate control and the constant movement of temperate air across the f loor from the Corona Inlets we can now use straw bedding throughout the year. When using traditional mini-vent ventilation with sidewall inlets, the straw bedding got wet during the colder months but now with the DACS system the straw bedding stays dry and well-conditioned.
3. The improved climate control and better air movement and humidity control capabilities of the combined Corona and AddAir operations have resulted in lower mortalities, better feed conversions and better foot pads scores. 20+ million broilers per year using DACS Overall, I believe we have amongst the best ventilation and heating combinations in the world and my birds are much healthier and grow stronger. We are currently adding a further capacity of 800,000 birds to our business and will be growing 20+ million broilers per year using DACS as the backbone of our operations.
Meeting my investment payback and ROIC targets The savings in heating, bedding material and management costs mean that I can give my birds a much better environment whilst also meeting my investment payback and ROIC targets. The smooth operating MagFan variable speed fans serve as exhaust fans from day one through to full tunnel mode and in addition to the significant savings on heat and bedding my electricity consumption has dropped significantly. Total saving for each batch = 8 cents per chicken
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