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Ventilating to Cool Modern Grower Turkeys

Sanjay Shah, Jesse Grimes and, Isaac Singletary (April, 2013)

Summary

North Carolina is the second largest turkey producing state in the U.S. after Minnesota, producing 32 million birds in 2011. Aside from disease and feed cost, heat stress is the most significant management challenge facing the N.C. turkey industry. Since this review covers ventilation for cooling of heavy strains of turkeys during the growing period after brooding, minimum ventilation will not be discussed.North Carolina summers have become warmer. For example, average air temperature during the summer in Clinton, the county seat of Sampson County, which is the largest turkey producing county in N.C., averaged 1.5°F higher during 2007–2012 than the 30-year average of 75.2°F. During July 2012 (hottest month on record), 342,500 turkeys died of heat stress in a 10-county region in eastern North Carolina. Additionally, the following turkey-related factors can increase heat stress in today’s turkey.