Currently the major LED application in the agriculture industry is horticulture lighting. The combination of LED fixture and hydroponic not only breakthroughs the limitation of environment and weather for growers but also optimizes crop quality by adjusting light spectrum. Horticulture lighting with LEDs is a niche application in recent years that attracts many global LED manufacturers.

Taiwan’s leading LED packager EVERLIGHT, who has developed various LEDs for horticulture lighting, is leveraging its LED technologies to other agriculture applications such as animal husbandry and aquaculture. Based on the technology principles of horticulture lighting, EVERLIGHT aims to apply tunable LEDs on poultry farming and fish farming.

With its newly established R&D team, EVERLIGHT joined Livestock Taiwan Expo for the first time with several new products. LEDinside visited EVERLIGHT’s booth at the show and interviewed Jimmy Hung, Product Marketing Manager at Lighting & UV Product Business Unit and Guang-Mau Lu, Manager of Optoelectronic Material Development Department of R&D Advance Material Division at EVERLIGHT. They explained how LED technology enables innovations in livestock farming.

(Left:Guang-Mau Lu, Manager of Optoelectronic Material Development Department;
right: Jimmy Hung, Product Marketing Manager at Lighting & UV Product Business Unit)

Tunable LED Lighting to Increase Egg and Poultry Production

“Our first target is poultry farming. We plan to adopt tunable LED technology of those applied in grow lights to raise poultry,” noted Hung. According to the forecast of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, poultry will be the major growing momentum for global meat production by 2030 and the demands will keep increasing. As a result, EVERLIGHT puts focal point on layer and broiler poultry farming.

With solid technology capability accumulated in horticulture lighting, EVERLIGHT established a new team to work on lighting for poultry farming. By setting up new laboratories and cooperating with clients to create data base, the company expects to offer holistic LED solutions for agriculture. Several related patents were also registered in Taiwan and China to secure its proprietary technologies.

(Everlight presented LED module for poultry lighting)

Lu mentioned that, according to existing researches, poultry are sensitive to wavelengths of green, red, blue and ultraviolet. For example, a chicken exposed to white light would take 172 days to reach reproductive maturity to lay eggs. But exposing to red light would shrink the period to 168 days. Blue light exposure, on the other hand, would extend the reproductive maturity to 182 days.

Full spectrum LED lighting not only affect egg production for layer chickens, it also improve muscle development for broiler chickens. Green light exposure stimulates poultries’ growth hormone receptors and enhance satellite glial cells that intensify and improve muscle development, enabling poultries to gain more weight shortly.

(a wide variety of LED applications for agriculture)

“EVERLIGHT’s edge is that we have LED products in different wavelengths and power to provide optimized lighting solutions,” addressed Lu. Other company might only be able to offer LEDs in one or two wavelength but EVERLIGHT can supply products with varied wavelengths and power according to experimental data to meet different demands.

EVERLIGHT Partners Public Health Professor to Develop UV LED Gravitrap

EVERLIGHT also showcased its UV LED application products at Livestock Taiwan Expo covering eggshell surface sanitization, water disinfection, mosquito lamp and gravitrap.

EVERLIGHT and Dr. Kun-Hsien Tsai, Professor at College of Public Health at National Taiwan University, collaborated to develop the UV LED gravitrap launched at the show. Color of the gravitrap is black for attracting mosquitos as they usually lay eggs in shadowy still water. The UVC LEDs in the trap would activate regularly to kill the eggs which the effect was confirmed by academic experiment. Mosquito lamps, on the other hand, combine UVA LED and photocatalyst to gather mosquitos and wipe them out with UVC LEDs.

(Different agricultural applications with UV LEDs)

Hung also pointed out that when visiting stock and poultry farms, EVERLIGHT found out farm workers are often disturbed by mosquitos or flies inside the farm and they also need to process sewage treatment due to large amount of animal waste. UV LED serves as a good solution for environment sterilization and water disinfection to tackle the issues.

During the show, EVERLIGHT explained that its water purifier can be installed with UV LED modules of different power for still or flowing water disinfection. Stock farms can use UV LED to sterilize wastewater before draining it, reducing environmental impacts.

UV LED water disinfection is critical for aquaculture as well. For example, grouper farmers usually pump sea water to maintain water quality for fishes, which takes lots of effort and time. By switching to water purification with UV LEDs, fish farmers can reduce energy consumption and save cost.

In addition, UV LEDs can be used to disinfect egg shells as germs and bacteria on the surface sometimes lead to food security problems. Since washing eggs could easily damage them and affect storage, UV LEDs disinfection become a better solution to diminish germs on eggs’ surface and secure eggs quality. EVERLIGHT is currently working with several egg companies and related equipment manufacturers to set disinfection UV LED lights on egg shelves to improve food security for consumers.

Wide Range Product Lines and Advanced Technologies for Customized Agri-Tech Applications

EVERLIGHT has visited other agriculture events and observed that most lighting suppliers for stock and poultry farming focused on strengthening fixture structure instead of addressing how lighting affects animals. Therefore, based on its solid LED technologies, EVERLIGHT aims to identify effects of light sources with different wavelengths and power on livestock and poultry, bringing about new opportunities and innovations in the industry.

(EVERLIGHT's booth at Livestock Taiwan Expo)

“The reaction and inquiry at the show were totally beyond our expectation,” said Lu. Apart from the targeted poultry farmers, aquaculture companies such as eel, grouper, shrimps farms, as well as biotechnology companies focusing on algae farming all show their interest in EVERLIGHT’s technology. As the leading LED packager in Taiwan, EVERLIGHT possesses completed product portfolio covering a wide range of wavelengths and power and is capable to offer tailored solutions for different applications and requirements.

EVERLIGHT is breaking fresh ground in the agriculture industry. Challenged by the tough LED market recently, EVERLIGHT integrates its LED product lines to optimize lighting solutions for horticulture and farming applications. In addition, its UV LED series products also support environment management for animal husbandry and fish farming businesses.

Building up strategic partnerships with diverse industry players, EVERLIGHT is shifting to a new blue ocean in the agriculture industry.