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May 26 2017

PMSI MOVES INTO A LARGER HEADQUARTERS

NEW HEADQUARTERS.

SAME ATTENTION TO DETAIL.

Poultry Management Systems, Inc. (PMSI) announced plans to relocate to a larger office and warehouse space in Lowell, Michigan, by late August 2017, and to hire additional employees for panel design, field service, Autocad design, and software development.

“The new 15,000 sq. ft. building is under construction at 890 O E Bieri Industrial Drive, Lowell, MI 49331”, said Poultry Management Systems President Doug Powell, who added, “It will be approximately twice the space we currently have.” The additional office and warehouse space is part of the planned changes needed to keep pace with growth in the poultry industry that PMSI has experienced during the past 8 years.

BIOSECURITY COMPLIANCE

PMSI is recognized for taking biosecurity seriously and continues to strongly support the biosecurity policies of customers. Currently, PMSI’s main office is located at Herbruck’s Ranch in Saranac, Michigan. However, once the poultry industry signaled a shift to stricter biosecurity standards, PMSI secured a lease on a building in Lowell, Michigan, away from all poultry operations. The building is currently used by all traveling PMSI employees. The new space in Lowell is a longer-term solution and will include both clean and dirty areas for returned customer parts.

MORE WAREHOUSE SPACE

PMSI’s growth during the past few years has meant more products coming and going through its warehouse doors. With the new larger warehouse space, storing products will be more systemized, and inventory control will become more efficient. PMSI’s Warehouse Production Manager Eric Winslow is especially looking forward to the extra space for moving and storing products. Winslow described the move to Lowell as “more room to work and stock parts.”

FASTER AND VERIFIED SAFE INTERNAL NETWORK

Since we are moving to a new location we also plan to upgrade our internal network as well. Eric Hansen, Senior Software Engineer describes the upgrade, “it will be faster and split so that machines that come back from customers are in a divided region until they are verified safe.”

TECH TIP

HOW THE RIGHT INSTALLATION WILL ENSURE BETTER PERFORMANCE

Poor installation can seriously degrade counter performance. For maximum performance, you must give equal consideration to the quality of the egg counter and to the installation.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET GOOD COUNTS IS A PROPER INSTALLATION AND THE CORRECT MOUNTING FRAME:

Mount the counter using the correct mounting frame.
Adjust the counter for the correct incline.
When mounting counter over a rod type conveyor the incline is a necessity. When mounting counter over a belt type of conveyor, mounting at an incline may not be necessary.
Eggs must be motionless on the belt. If they are rolling across the belt as it travels under the counter you will get double counts.
When the belt stops there should not be any back winding of the belt or the egg could get triple counted.
The egg counter can be mounted on both the egg belt and the cross conveyor. When mounted on a cross conveyor, the egg counter should be positioned where the eggs cannot move sideways. Moving eggs could be double or triple counted.
Intense light, direct sunlight, and bright fluorescent light can influence accuracy. Place the egg counters out of direct light or shield them.

A very high percentage of counter support issues can be directly attributed to improper installation as well as a lack of maintenance. Each mounting frame is designed for a specific counter and is a result of engineering efforts.

SOME OF THE ISSUES WE SEE FROM IMPROPER INSTALLATION:

High counts
Low counts
Inconsistent counts

PMSI provides step by step instructions. Once all the steps are followed and completed the installation will be complete. Incomplete or improper installation can lead to poor egg counts. If the installer is unclear or uncertain regarding any of the steps, they should contact PMSI Support for clarification at 616-642-9050.

October 26 2016

TEN CAGE FREE ENHANCEMENTS PMSI WILL AUTOMATE FOR YOU

- Dan Henslee

SIMPLIFY BY USING POULTRY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TO BRING ALL OF YOUR CAGE-FREE AUTOMATION TOGETHER

The face of the industry is changing as egg farmers install the latest production systems. Multiple producers are implementing some form of cage free system. Almost all production and processing managers rely on automation to improve performance of egg laying hens. PMSI systems, which enhance this new technology, is versatile enough to help improve these changes in the industry. As new tools emerge and existing capabilities such as variable speed manure blowers, inside humidity, litter scraper control and light dimming (to name a few) require the ability to monitor and control with precision accuracy, PMSI helps to make this a smooth transition.

Custom egg counters – 6” and 8” image detecting sensors count eggs accurately without single-filing on the new aviary systems. PMSI went back to the manufacturer and requested these custom counters to help monitor and control eggs produced by the latest cage free systems.
Variable speed control of feeders – The addition of variable speed drives to chain feeders allows for two primary functions:
- Gradual increase in feed chain speed from stopped to full speed over the course of a minute. This can improve the lifetime of the system, and reduce maintenance on the feed chains and sheer pins.
- In pullet systems, feed chains can be run at reduced speeds, allowing young chicks the ability to leave the feed trough when a feeding starts.
Egg batching with encoder monitoring – Independent speed control of each house allowing for specialty eggs. Gather eggs from houses individually in order to keep products separate from one another on the main conveyor system.
Light dimming – Sunrise and sunset schedules help birds to know when to come out and when to lay eggs. It encourages the birds to lay in the nest instead of on the floor. Slowly increasing light intensity in the morning and decreasing in the evening simulates natural lighting.
Zoned temperature control – When birds migrate and pile, as they can in a cage free building, the ability to adjust the air in specific regions of the building is much more important.
Heat map, simple temperature visual feed-back – Quickly identify anomalies and uneconomical temperature patterns using historical and real-time data.
Litter scraper control – PMSI provides pushbutton start/stop and monitoring sensors for litter scraper control.
Nest door control and monitoring – We can monitor and track the history of system doors with PMSI controls, and can provide custom door opening verification and hard copy reporting.
Variable floor heating (radiant heat) – PMSI controls in-floor radiant heating which helps with uniformity in winter. This technology uses circulating fluid to transfer heat from one or more boilers directly to the floor of a building.
Cage free temperature graph – Perching, foraging, dust-bathing, cage design, functional space, perching space, and nest boxes are all things which can affect the bird’s behavior and that need to be fully monitored. Monitoring the cage-free temperatures can help in understanding and adjusting for bird behaviors.

RAISING THE BAR WITH ATLAS SOFTWARE

Cage-free flock behavior makes it even more important to automatically monitor and control conditions throughout the barn. PMSI’s Atlas software is flexible, which enables us to meet the needs of changing production systems. On top of that, we’re constantly making improvements and additions to it’s features and abilities. New egg flow batching, egg indexing, localized egg flow control and improved reporting features are just a few of the things we’ve been working on. We also provide customized reports for easier adaptation to client needs. We know you want to utilize your flocks to their full potential, and these tools are designed to do exactly that.