Poultry litter management to be topic of August workshop

FAYETTEVILLE — A workshop preparing poultry growers for the winter months will be held Aug. 2829 in collaboration with the University of Georgia department of poultry science and the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Yi Liang, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering for the Division of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas’ College of Engineering, said the workshop will focus on managing poultry litter using best practices including ventilation to maintain healthy birds in broiler houses.

“Managing poultry litter is harder to do in the winter,” Liang said. “With the warm weather, the ventilation fans are on a lot, so the ventilation rate is high and helps keep the litter dry. But in the winter, we want to conserve fuel while keeping the house at certain temperatures, so the ventilation fans don’t run as much. It takes a suite of techniques to do it right.”

Liang is also affiliated with the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, which is a unit of the Division of Agriculture.

The workshop will be held at Waldrip Hall in the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1371 W. Altheimer Drive, in Fayetteville.

Register online at https://aaes.uada.edu/ events/2025-poult ry-litter-management-workshop/.

Topics of the workshop include:

• Litter moisture and bird health and performance • Factors that affect litter ammonia production • Minimum ventilation rates to control litter moisture

• Litter and environmental management between flocks

• Air inlet management to control litter moisture

• Litter management for Salmonella control

• Negative pressure ventilation

• House tightness and its effect on minimum ventilation

• Bird management and litter moisture control

• Basic house operation during cold weather

• Circulation fan systems The event takes place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 28, and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Aug. 29. Lunch and dinner will be provided on the first day and breakfast on the second day. The workshop is $350 per participant, and the deadline to register is Aug. 20.

The workshop was originally scheduled for this past February but was cancelled due to precautions around highly pathogenic avian influenza.

To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website.

Follow the Division of Agriculture Research Department on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow the Division of Agriculture on X at @ AgInArk.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.