“Smart light” in the barn

Scientists have been studying the impact of light on domestic animals, particularly cows, for several decades. The life indicators of animals are significantly associated with the intensity of lighting and the duration of the daylight hours. This is linked to the intensive production of melatonin when overall lighting decreases. In turn, the level of melatonin regulates the animal’s condition and productivity. To keep cows alert, it is necessary to provide lighting in the premises for 16 hours a day at a level of 150-200 Lux.

The entire lighting system of the farm, taking into account all necessary requirements, is quite complex and manually managing it would be difficult. Engineers from our company have been developing and improving the smartAC lighting control system for a long time. This is a hardware-software complex with a modular design, which makes it quite easy to adapt to various tasks. In particular, the smartAC system was installed and is successfully operating in a new livestock complex for 1500 heads.

When installing and configuring the system, customer wishes were taken into account to create a fully autonomous control system that could independently maintain a cyclical change in lighting throughout the day, smooth brightness adjustment, and daily adjustment to the astronomical cycle. Access to the interface is available from any device connected to the Internet.

The lighting control system has been tested and has been operating normally for several months. Compared to last year, when milk volumes decreased in the fall, yields have almost not changed now. Equally significant are the positive feedback from farm workers, who have gained more comfortable working conditions with the new lighting.