Innovations and Safety at the Forefront of Poultry Industry – Brandon Mulnix- IPPE 2024 Recap

Discover the pulse of the US poultry sector as I, Brandon Mulnix, takes you behind the scenes of the bustling IPPE 2024 event. Revel in the details of increased attendance and vibrant exchanges between industry innovators, as we reflect on the gathering of major players. The scene was electric with potential, as the bustling trade show floor buzzed with networking and deal-making. Yet, I share a candid longing for the voices of those on the ground—maintenance personnel and farm managers—whose contributions are critical for taking our industry innovations from good to great.

Transitioning to a topic that weighs heavily on the industry's conscience, fire safety takes center stage. As a vendor, I've seen firsthand the careful balancing act between animal welfare and fire risk in building designs. We dissect the standard safety measures and spotlight cutting-edge solutions that could revolutionize emergency response in rural areas. Imagine a system that not only detects smoke early but also preserves the birds' safety while halting the spread of fire—it's an ambitious goal that we're chasing relentlessly.

Wrapping up, the episode sheds light on the technological leaps in egg production, specifically the integration of vision-based systems for egg counting and data management. Gone are the days of inaccurate tallies and inefficiencies, as we explore how these advancements streamline processes and maintain the integrity of egg production. I'm eager to hear your views on these innovations and invite you to become a part of our conversation—whether by sharing your insights as a guest or simply by passing this podcast along to your colleagues in the industry. Let's hatch new ideas and foster growth together in the dynamic world of poultry.

Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Transcript

Brandon Mulnix: 0:16

I've read all of them. Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. Hey guys, I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix, and on today's show we're going to do things a little different. We're recapping IPP 2024. So if you didn't get a chance to attend, man, this is the show for you, and if you did get a chance to attend, maybe you get a chance to stop by. But I'm going to cover in this show a few of the things that I noticed by being at the show. And what a great show this week.

Brandon Mulnix: 0:53

The one thing I noticed right off the bat was people. My last time I attended the show was 2023. And we were recovering from COVID and it was the off year. Show Code didn't have a lot of the equipment providers there and so we didn't. We didn't exhibit. But this year we got to exhibit and so as the week went by, I just noticed a lot of people, people from all across the US, lots of customers, lots of vendors. Heck, nathan was right when he was on the interview, when he was interviewed on the podcast a few weeks ago, and he talked about the scope of this show and just how big it was going to be. It was big. It was really big. As we talk today. I'm also going to cover a few of the hot topics and we'll get into that in just a few moments. So I want to go back to the people who was at the show. One thing we noticed was about 80 to 90% of the producers at least large scale producers, possibly the top 60, at least 80 to 90% were represented there at the show, which is great. That means producers are going and learning and trying to figure out what products that they want to use for the future.

Brandon Mulnix: 2:08

What I want to talk about is who wasn't at the show. The people I didn't see at the show. There were not a lot of maintenance people. You know, maintenance people that work in the industry, that go and fix the equipment, that know what works and what doesn't work, because they're the ones who have to maintain it weren't there. I saw a couple of them and they would sit in our booth and tell us what was working, what was not working, and it was just. Those are the conversations that really help us, as vendors, improve our product, but overall there weren't a lot of guys there. A lot of the people we saw there were the decision makers, the guys that the guys and gals that make the decision on a corporate level, are deciding the equipment and stuff for the next project. But, man, I wish I could have seen a lot more maintenance guys, a lot more pull it managers, layer managers, guys that are raising the birds. They just didn't see a lot of those guys there, and there's so many great things that they can provide to their companies with information. So we'll just point it wish we would have saw a few more of those. But, man, it was a great, great show. When it came to people, nathan did not disappoint. So let's take a minute and I'm just going to run through what a week looks like for me as a vendor.

Brandon Mulnix: 3:27

So our team arrived Sunday, came in, got set up, had to unload all of our crates, make sure everything was there and just get everything all set up, because on Monday, man, the meeting started. Uep has their meetings on Monday over at the Omni and that was a great time to network with customers that were there just specifically for the UEP P of it, as well as listen to the topics and the reports from the different committees and where the, where the UEP group is going. We follow that up with a polymer reception, so drinks and networking, which is always a great time to interact with customers. And then, of course, you got to have dinner, so we were able to take a customer out that night, on Tuesday. Man, things got kicked off really slow as that big, huge convention hall fills up with people. We just so happened to have one of those locations that was just off to the outside, just away from all the commotion and the busyness of the event. But over time customers started rolling in and we were able to have great one-on-one meetings with customers. And with a venue with that many people in it to have one-on-one meetings and not be distracted, it just worked out really well.

Brandon Mulnix: 4:42

We then go and have to have dinner, so we take another customer out, which is always great because when you get to take a customer out, you're enjoying dinner, similar family style. I know our dinner. We happen to hit a great restaurant, great steak place and man, oh, the dinner, the food was great and just the time. Getting to know each other, getting to talk about the real issues that they're struggling with and just further developing those relationships was was incredible. Wednesday morning woke up to a trade, to a really busy trade show. Our team hardly left the booth because customer after customer rolled through and just shared what was what they needed from us as a vendor, which was awesome. We were able to talk about all the new products and all the new different things that we are doing for the industry, which was great. Wednesday night happened to have dinner with another vendor, which was great, just because they were a supplier to us and so they were able to take us out and actually share with us what their new products are and deepen those friendships and relationships. So that was awesome Thursday.

Brandon Mulnix: 5:53

Thursday is what I call Network Day. Thursday is the day where most of the customers are filtering through or have already taken off for home, but the vendors are able to sit around and collaborate on different ways that we can improve for the following year, or the new products or, you know, create new business networks. Thursday afternoon pack up and it would have been nice, but our trade show booths they didn't get there till late. I think I won the lottery with the first one, and I probably lost the lottery by having one of the last booths or last crates for our area, so I ended up arriving home back on Friday Makes for a pretty darn long week, but, man, it was worth all the extra energy.

Brandon Mulnix: 6:38

The hot topics this week fire, eight gonners and data. So I want to break those topics down a little bit. If you didn't have a chance to stop by the booth, I want to talk to you about those. Why was fire the number one topic that I talked about? Well, there were two big fires in the week leading up to the show and also on Monday of the show there was a couple houses lost in Texas. And man, we're not going to sit here and speculate what started those fires. We're not insurance companies, we're not the fire investigators, but what we are going to talk about is how fire is affecting our industry, and this is this is a topic that I'm very passionate about. This is a topic that I have been working really hard to, to learn even more of, even after being a fireman for 20 years and just trying to figure out how we can stop the industry the poultry industry, the pig industry, the cattle industry from losing buildings to fire. So we're going to talk about that here today. We'll break down a little bit about egg counting issues as well, as we're talking about data. You know, temperature data and all the different data that's collected by the barn. So let's jump even more into this whole fire thing as the industry continues to lose buildings. What's really hard for the industry is the fact that when a fire burns in Texas, it's going to affect the insurance rates of farms in Delaware. It's going to affect the insurance rates of farms in Washington state.

Brandon Mulnix: 8:13

This industry's buildings were all typically designed for animal welfare. What that means as temperature goes up, more fans turn on. As temperature goes up, more air is introduced in the building because the air inlets open. In the poultry industry, all of the systems have been designed to always fail for the safety of the animals. So, for example, if their temperatures continue to rise, let's say past 90 degrees, all the fans are going to fail on and the air inlets are going to fail open. So what that means is, if there's a power failure, the birds are typically a controller failure. The birds are going to have the ventilation that they need, versus. If it fails and shuts off, then birds are going to be at risk. And so, with these designs in place, what happens is, when a fire happens, that temperature rises and as the temperature rises, more oxygen, more air speed is created, and what that does to the fire? It just continues to spread very, very quickly. Most farms have settings around 90 degrees for a temple arm and also at that temple arm is the thermostat set to turn on all the fans. In the event of a failure of the control system, temps rise to 90 degrees pretty quickly in a fire and then that extra oxygen, that extra wind speed is just naturally introduced to the building. It doesn't take long before there's a power failure because the wire's burnt through and the building is now probably in a defensive fire mode because there's really no way to keep it contained.

Brandon Mulnix: 10:03

Well, I'm going to talk about our company just a little bit, because we actually tested and deployed a solution for fire in this industry and we're not waiting until it turns into a fire. One of the key things that we identified really early is this has to be stopped at smoke. The Enable Welfare Committee part of the UEP a few years ago released a study saying that electrical, mechanical and heaters were the typical cause of fires in the poultry barn. Why identifying as smoke is so important is if you can identify it at smoke by, let's say, an overheating bearing, that's smoking. Or a motor failure, that's smoking. Or a power supply, that's smoking you by turning off the power it typically will reduce the heat source for the fire, making sure that the fire doesn't grow. So for us, smoke was the most important thing to identify.

Brandon Mulnix: 11:09

Because we can identify smoke with our therm system, we're able to quickly, very early, notify farm staff and the fire department while simultaneously shutting off the fans, closing air inlets and shutting off the motors that run the egg belts, manure belts and power supplies to the house. This giving time for the fire department to respond. Because most of these fire departments are in the rural areas it takes time for the call to come out, the firemen to leave their day jobs, to leave their homes, get to the fire station and respond to the farm. Sometimes that can take 15, 20, 25 minutes. The earlier they're notified, the better chance that they're going to have and get to the farm and actually put out a fire. In the event, the fire didn't extinguish itself when the power was turned off.

Brandon Mulnix: 12:07

For us, if we can, at the smoke level, start that notification process and even if a fire does start to spread a little bit by turning off the electricity to the motors, it's going to shut off those fans that naturally would want to turn. More of them would want to turn on by. We also have the feature of closing the air inlets. Well, what that does is it starts to suffocate the fire as the birds continue to breathe oxygen. It's going to reduce that oxygen in the room and for a period of time that oxygen is going to be a little bit depleted and that's going to keep the fire from spreading. No air velocity, so nothing's blowing that fire through the building. By doing all of those things, it's going to give the farm a chance to respond to that event much, much sooner than a normal building, because typically what we're finding is a lot of these fires are called in by someone outside of the farm. They see the smoke from their home driving down the highway and by then that fire is self-ventilated and that fire is spreading way too quickly. If we wait till that smoke gets out of the building, it's probably too late.

Brandon Mulnix: 13:13

By identifying that smoke and then integrating with the power and the controls, we've provided a solution to the industry, and this is a tested solution. This isn't something that we just made up or made out of, you know, pulled out of our rear ends. No, this is something that we worked with engineers and then we were actually blessed to have the Canadian wildfires test it in Iowa when that smoke settled in the area and had eight detectors. Smoke detectors go off perfectly just the way we wanted to, and by doing that it helped build confidence in this system. So this is a tested, proven system that by the end of 2024 should be protecting over 3 million birds. From zero two years ago to over 3 million birds in just under two years, that's one heck of an innovation process in this industry.

Brandon Mulnix: 14:05

Other things that we've learned on this fire topic building construction. As these fires happen in the industry, we take time and we learn what happened, what worked, what didn't work. And a lot of the farms have policies in place that if bar number one is on fire, you're to drive a bulldozer through the causeway between bar number one in the processing facility or bar number one and bar number two, because that's what's going to keep the fire from spreading. Well, guys, a lot of that's because of ventilation, a lot of that is because of the air, and the other barn is pull is creating a negative pressure in that causeway, pulling the fire towards it. So you got to think about some building construction ideas out there. What if you put an inlet that could open up in the event of a fire in that causeway, short circuiting the airflow so that way air from that positively or that negatively pressured ventilated barn next door is pulling that air out of the causeway instead of out of the barn next door. That's one idea.

Brandon Mulnix: 15:09

There's so many great ideas out there through building construction. Put them a little farther apart. Putting firewalls in between the two buildings those are different things that the contractors are looking for. If you've got ideas, contact us and share them with us, because our goal I mean these are free ideas. These are ideas that we give out because we're we're focused on the controls. We're focused on the things that we can have an effect on with controls and automation. But if there's an idea that you've seen or heard, please reach out to me and I'll be more than happy to put them in the list of things that we've been able to help other farmers with.

Brandon Mulnix: 15:48

What does it mean to the farmer? Why was it such a hot topic this week? Well, it goes back to that whole insurance issue. The fires that happen this week will be on the forefront of the insurance underwriters minds when the industry goes to get reinsured this spring, as a customer has to go in March or has to go in April to talk to the insurance underwriters and say, hey, mr Underwriter, can, can you give us a good rate on insurance? And then they look at the industry and go well, and have some really big issues this year with fire. What are you guys doing, what is your company doing to respond and reducing our risk as an insurance carrier, our insurance underwriter? Those rates aren't going down, they keep going up.

Brandon Mulnix: 16:37

I talked with the insurance companies and the industry as a whole continues to evolve because, unfortunately, what's happened is the barns that have burnt in the last couple of weeks are new barns. These aren't barns that are 20, 30 years old. These are barns that were built to house, cage free birds and, not knowing what the causes of those fires are, it just shows that, hey, building construction is only a small portion. It may slow down the fire, but ultimately we've got to do something that much greater to prevent these fires. And so fire was the hot topic. Fire was and that's all pun intended fire was the conversation. That was the conversation that really, really affects, and we've got some other products in development. We're trying to do some predictive maintenance so those motors are in better shape and the power supplies are better regulated and the ohms are measured and all of those things. So we realize, as a technology company in this industry we do have a role, we do have a responsibility to continue to innovate and protect farmers. And so, man, that was. That was one of those topics this week that really, really, really was important for our customers and important for us.

Brandon Mulnix: 17:58

The second big topic that we talked a lot about was egg counting folks. The IR counter that's been around for a really long time was a really, really good counter. When eggs were presented under one, two, three at a time, it handled them. It counts, you know, 96 to 98% accuracy. You know it didn't know the difference between an egg and a ball of manure, but you know what. It counted it. And as things worked, belts were pretty simple. There wasn't as much weight on the belts because it was just the eggs were all in spread out across the cage environment. They worked really really well.

Brandon Mulnix: 18:35

But over the past few years we were challenged to come up with a better solution, because one of the things that doesn't work in cage free is when an egg goes under the counter, the belt stops and the eggs roll back, and that can be for a number of reasons. It can be because the belts aren't necessarily level, and so gravity kind of pulls the egg back, and so what happens, though, is the egg rolls through the first, counted on the first time, it rolls back under and counted a second time, and then, when the belt starts back up, it's counted a third time, and that egg, if you have three counts on one egg, it's probably three counts on multiple eggs. That doesn't work for a system. That doesn't work for egg flow very well.

Brandon Mulnix: 19:23

The other issue is cleanliness. I or counters are right close to the belt. They have to be within within an inch of the egg, and that area, with all that air movement just caused by that egg going by, creates the static electricity, creates dust that then collects on the air counter. We've heard our customers talk about how they have to keep the egg counters clean. Every day, they're cleaning those eight counters, some every week, some every month, but most of them that one accurate accounts found that they have to do it every day, and, unfortunately, what happens is they then have a tendency to knock them out of alignment, and when an eight counters out of alignment if it's too close to the belt, it counts too many. Every hole that goes by in the belt it will count as an egg. Or if it's too far away from the egg, it won't count the egg at all. And so when you have a system that already has a variable of birds that are laying on that row, on that tier, and that egg belt doesn't have a standard of maybe 1000 eggs a day or 10,000 eggs a day, it's going to be a variable that ranges based on where those birds are most comfortable laying their eggs. And so when you already have a variable of number of eggs going by, it's really hard to tell if your egg counter is accurate or not.

Brandon Mulnix: 20:41

What we did was we went out, we listened and we came up with a solution, partnered with a producer out there, and we actually worked together and designed a vision based egg counter. Why a vision based egg counter works so much better is one you always can see what eggs are being counted. You always have the visibility of eggs going under and seeing the numbers change, seeing the, the identifier mark change and says Yep, I was counted, it's a bigger field of view. So as the egg comes in, it's counted. If the egg comes back and rolls back. It has to roll back a lot farther before it. It's a new way to the system and what that has allowed us to do is actually allows farmers to see what their belts are doing underneath. If the egg belt stops and they see the eggs go back and forth, they know to now to go and correct it either with a mechanical means changing motors maybe it's the gearbox or the doesn't have a break on the on the belt and so they're able to go out and fix it and it's no longer the counters fault, it's actually the system. They can make adjustments and fine tune it.

Brandon Mulnix: 21:52

Well, when you have really accurate counts, it really smooths out your egg flow. We've seen that with so many customers, over 5 million birds this year alone are producing eggs that go under egg counters. That's a lot of counts, and why that's important is we all know that the egg is the value to an egg producer. When eggs are flowing in the smooth and there's less stops, that means less time for that egg to roll into the next one, for checks and cracks, and it just helps smooth out the processing facility because as it turns on and off houses and rows, and being able to adjust, those eggs are able to come in much smoother and when, at the end of the day, when there's less stops, the eggs are presented to, the greater and better quality, that return on investment 101.

Brandon Mulnix: 22:48

Also, I have to say, make sure you're tuning your system. Over time, vs drives and other types of mechanical issues come into play when it comes to your egg flow. We encourage you to give us a call and let one of our guys come on site and help tune your system. It is the musical instrument that just absolutely plays into your greater and your breakers and if that's out of tune, the whole system is out of tune. If one house is not providing eggs at the right speed, the rest of the houses are not providing the eggs at the right speed. It's important that you look at that system as a whole and say, hey, what can I do to tune it and to make sure that everything's working appropriately, and our guys have a lot of experience doing that. They go on sites, they go on different equipment. They've dealt with pretty much any kind of problem in the industry. We really encourage folks to give us a call so we can come out and help tune that system and some of that can be done remotely. Some of it can be done only on site, where we can help see the problem and just watch as it all comes together.

Brandon Mulnix: 23:59

One of the last hot topics is data. For years and years and years, controllers have been providing data temp sensors, feed schedules, water usage, mortality, all the different aspects of what keeps birds healthy, alive but what do you do with it? For years that data has been siloed within the controller and then it moved up into more of a server for the whole system. Well, this year we were excited because we're able to show customers the next generation of our product, where it's a corporate level data management system that takes all that data and starts to put it into usable form, where a CFO can look at the data and hit the way he needs the data to be presented to him. A pull it manager can look at all of their pullets that they're responsible for and see the variety based on the genetics of the bird, on the type of bird, the age of the bird really different information on top of each other.

Brandon Mulnix: 25:05

Record events to say, hey, on this date this happened, and then this is possibly why this data is turning out the way it is, but just to give visibility to corporate level data multiple farms, multiple locations from across the country all pulled into one system that can now be looked at in ways to go. Oh, now it's that much more usable. It also allows us, when we have that data, to start to understand what's needed at the controller level, to go backwards to allow someone to dive in all the way from their headquarters all the way down to the barn and just being able to make those adjustments and being able to really make those micro adjustments that really help the flock Not the data that's going to help tomorrow, but maybe the data that you need to look at in a week or two weeks because of the event that happened today. So that was another really big topic. Another thing that we were able to talk about a reach product with, and so that was I was quite exciting to be able to share with customers just what's going on. Overall, those are the three hot topics of the week. I appreciate the time that you've allowed me to talk to you about them.

Brandon Mulnix: 26:12

This event has allowed me to reach out and connect with some future guests on the show and just hear the feedback about this show. That has really helped others grow and with six episodes this will be episode seven. I'm just excited to be able to bring to you that many more awesome guests, that spine value and helping the next generation of leaders in this industry to bring that event out to the farm level, to bring that event in the topics to the folks in this industry that really, really want to grow. So if you know somebody that just you want us to learn about, what this industry is about is new to the industry, maybe they just became got a job and sales for feed. Maybe they got a job and sales for equipment. Maybe they're a veterinarian that's just now getting into this, into this industry.

Brandon Mulnix: 27:06

I'm hoping this podcast is shared with them. Please share this with your friends that are in the industry, share this with other folks and also reach out to me. If you want to be a guest on the show, please reach out to me. My email address is be mulix m u l n I x at prism controlscom and I would love to talk about how you can contribute to the industry, because this show is only valuable when guests come on and share their stories, share the things that they've overcome, share their learnings, so that way you, as a listener, can grow. Thank you again. And this, this show, wouldn't be possible without prism controls. Have a great day.