David Buessing, EmTech Hatchery Systems, spoke to The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell at 2024 IPPE held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Editor’s note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me about zero-point-six.

Zero-point-six indicates a temperature of 0.6°C, which is 1°F. Zero-point-six actually represents a series of numbers: 0.6, 35 and 6. What we’re trying to communicate with zero-point-six is the temperature differentials within the machine will not vary greater than 0.6°C. In incubation, it is most important to maintain uniformity of temperatures. So that is a very critical, key point, and an important advantage of our equipment. It has to do with how our machines are constructed, the way heat is transferred, the way air flow is generated within the machine and how we remove that heat.

What does the number 35 mean?

The number 35, meaning 35°C, indicates the water temperature when it leaves the machine. This is very important because it indicates how well the heat is removed from the egg mass and out of the machine. That becomes recoverable heat energy. We can then use that for heating. If we’re doing dehumidification in the hatchery, we can use it to rewarm the air after we’ve compressed the moisture out of the air. So that is a very important number, too.

What does the number 6 mean?

This brings me to the number 6. The number 6 represents our warm-up times. If we take the eggs from the egg store, which is typically stored at 18°C, and move them into the incubator, they have to get up to incubation set point, preferably as quickly as possible. So 6 hours is what that number signifies. This is unassisted, so there are no external boilers or additional heating systems. It’s just the heating within the machines and that’s very rapid warm-up times. It has to do with the construction of the box, the way the machine is designed, how we’re flowing the air, how we’re removing heat from the machine or heating up the machine. There’s a lot that goes into these numbers. What we hope to do at the show is have customers ask these same questions, so we can explain what these numbers mean because these are very important numbers for any hatchery.

Bottom line, what does this mean for producers?

The obvious important number for hatcheries is the number of chicks, or total gross hatch of chicks. Second, obviously important is quality. Once you hatch those chicks, are they ready for the field? Are they healthy chicks? Also, related and tied together is uniformity. One can’t be without the other. When you get uniformity, you get better uniform growth on the farm which ultimately ends up in the processing plant. Anything you can do to improve uniformity is good for the producer’s bottom line.

Those three numbers contribute to all that. That’s what we see on the farm and what we want to see on the farm. We’re a small piece of the poultry integration, but I would argue, a very important one. We’ve taken those concepts and applied them to older equipment and other equipment, too. That’s a very active, interesting part of our business. We’re listening to our customers and helping to create solutions. It’s a lot of fun. We’re solving problems.