Automated Feed Bin Gate Design

The United States produces approximately 8.5 billion broilers annually (NASS). These birds are housed in 100,000 different broiler houses across the country. Large companies dominate the broiler production industry, vertically integrating and managing the processes associated with the chicken from the egg to the dinner plate. Integrator companies comprised of hatcheries, feed mills, and processing facilities allow the process of broiler production to transition smoothly between the various growth stages of the bird. Chicks and feed are provided by the integrator, while housing, utilities, and husbandry are provided by the grower.  Farmers typically manage a farm with multiple houses usually around 500 feet in length, and capable of housing thousands of birds. These farmers manage the farm around the clock throughout the year, continuously monitoring the status of all houses under his supervision. Typically the farmer will sign a contract with an integrator company who provides chicks and feed for the farmer. At the farmer’s request, feed from the integrator’s feed mill is delivered by truck to the farm and placed in large aluminum feed bins until ready to be consumed by the broilers.

      Each poultry house, utilizes a mechanized feeding system to deliver pelleted feed to the birds. Feed is stored in the large aluminum bins outside of the houses and carried to the feed lines inside the house through a flexible auger system. These systems are comprised of two bin and three bin systems. Two bin systems empty into one poultry house, while the three bin system feeds two houses (Figures 1 and 2).  In a typical operation, the first bin of the storage system feeds the auger conveyance system until empty, then additional bins are manually opened using slide gates at the base of the bins.

      Specific to feed management, the farmer currently goes out to the feed bins and uses a large pole with a rubber piece attached to the end and hits the bins in order to manually estimate the feed level inside of them. Differences in the sound of impact when striking indicate the level of feed in the bin. When the farmer determines the last bin is empty or close to empty, he or she either closes the slide on that bin and open another, or calls the feed truck driver to come refill the feed bins. The feed truck driver brings feed to the poultry farm and deposits it into the bin using an auger attached to the truck. He then uses a system of visual indicators, such as colored magnets, to express what type of feed he has put in the bin; green signifies starter feed, yellow for grower feed, and red for when finisher feed is in the bin (Figure 3).

     Feed level monitoring is a process of continuous anxiety for the farmer and needs to be monitored all day and throughout the night. Load cells placed under the feed bin give a very accurate estimation of the total feed in the bin, but are very costly for the farmer and are difficult to install on existing farms. One opportunity for improvement in this system is automating the opening of these feed bins in a variable order based on bin indicators (Figure 3). If the metal slide gate can be automated, farms could save both time and money. Farmers are paid based on a bird weight to feed amount delivered ratio, so any amount of time broilers spend without feed results in a decrease of farm profit due to a reduction in broiler weight that cannot be compensated for in the life of that flock. Additionally, a farmer who does not have to manually open and close slide gates on his bins can spend that time working on other issues within the houses, hence, making his farm have an overall higher efficiency.