Tahila Broilers Case Study | Redefining Efficiency in Commercial Poultry Farming with Advanced LED Poultry Lighting
Project Overview
Tahila Broilers, located near Rustenburg, South Africa, represents one of the largest and most technologically advanced commercial poultry farming operations on the African continent. When fully operational, the site will produce up to 700,000 broilers per cycle, setting a new benchmark in scale, efficiency, and smart agricultural integration.
Tahila Project Overview
About the Owner
Dr. Chris Travers is a qualified veterinarian and experienced commercial poultry producer. As a member of the Poultry Group of the South African Veterinary Association, he brings a unique combination of animal health expertise and hands-on farming knowledge to every decision he makes on farm design and management.
Dr. Travers began farming broilers in 1999 on his family farm. After selling those shares, he developed an independent operation in 2022, growing 348,000 broilers for CC Chickens. Tahila Broilers is his second major development, this time supplying Rainbow Chickens at significantly greater scale.
Designed for Efficiency at Scale
From the outset, the Tahila Broilers project was engineered around two core principles: energy efficiency and operational scale. Every system on the farm, from ventilation to lighting, was selected to maximise bird performance while minimising input costs.
1. Energy Efficiency
The farm operates on a fully off-grid, AI-controlled solar PV, battery, and inverter system, ensuring complete energy independence and long-term cost efficiency. This is particularly significant given the energy demands of large-scale commercial poultry farming in South Africa.
Key energy efficiency features include:
- Highly insulated, low-volume house design to minimise thermal energy loss
- Advanced heating combining boiler technology, low sidewall radiant heating, and heat exchangers
- High-performance ventilation fans with variable speed drives
- Pre-cooled air intake using evaporative cooling under the bullnose structure
2. Scale
Each broiler house measures 153m × 20.5m with a centralised control room, designed to house approximately 70,000 birds per cycle. Larger, centrally managed houses deliver three key advantages in commercial poultry farming:
- Lower cost per bird through operational economies of scale
- Simplified day-to-day flock management
- More consistent environmental conditions across the entire house
This scale is only achievable through the high level of environmental control delivered by the integrated system.
Smart Farming Through Advanced Environmental Control
The entire farm is managed by a next-generation, AI-ready control system developed in collaboration with Plasson and Stienen. This integrated platform continuously optimises all key environmental parameters across the farm:
- Ventilation - maintaining precise airspeed and air quality
- Heating - consistent thermal environment from day-old chick to market weight
- Cooling - evaporative pre-cooling for heat abatement
- Feeding - automated feed management tied to growth stage
- Lighting - programmable dusk-to-dawn dimming cycles
The result is precise, repeatable environmental control that supports optimal bird performance, reduced mortality, and improved feed conversion ratios throughout every production cycle.
Poultry Lighting - A Critical Performance Factor
In commercial poultry farming, lighting is far more than just illumination. The right poultry lighting system directly influences feed intake, growth rate, bird behaviour, and flock uniformity. For Tahila Broilers, the challenge was delivering consistent, high-quality light across houses measuring 153 metres long, with a low ceiling height of just 3 metres.
Why Sunbird LED Poultry Lighting Was Selected
Dr. Travers evaluated multiple poultry lighting options before specifying Sunbird Lighting. His requirements were precise:
- Excellent light uniformity across the full 153m × 20.5m footprint
- Cool white spectrum optimised for broiler performance
- True dusk-to-dawn dimming capability for natural light transitions
- Simple, reliable installation with minimal long-term maintenance
Lighting Design & Technical Performance
The lighting solution designed by Sunbird Lighting and installed by Plasson SA consists of 6 rows of 120 × 3W LED lights per house - 720 luminaires in total per structure.
Installation Configuration
Measured Lighting Performance
83% Light Uniformity - Across a 153m Broiler House
Achieving 83% uniformity in a low-ceiling, large-footprint structure is an exceptional result. Industry best practice for commercial poultry lighting targets a minimum uniformity of 0.6 (60%). Sunbird's 6-row configuration at Tahila Broilers nearly doubles this minimum, ensuring every bird across the full house floor receives consistent light stimulation.
Industry-Leading Dimming for Bird Welfare
One of the most significant performance differentiators in the Sunbird Lighting system is its dimming precision. The system dims continuously from 0.01V to 10V across 1,000 individual steps, enabling a smooth, gradual transition that mimics natural dawn and dusk conditions.
In commercial poultry farming, abrupt light changes cause flock stress, pile-ups, and injuries. A true dusk-to-dawn dimming programme keeps birds calm throughout the production cycle, supports normal feeding behaviour, and reduces reactive responses that negatively affect feed conversion and growth rates.
Simple, Robust Installation
Beyond performance, installation simplicity was a key selection criterion for this large-scale commercial poultry farming project. The Sunbird Lighting system was designed for fast, reliable installation.
- Lights are crimped directly onto the illumination cable — no inline connectors or joins from front to back of the house
- The seamless cable run eliminates the most common points of failure in poultry lighting installations
- Fewer connection points means faster installation, less maintenance, and greater long-term reliability
The system was supplied and installed by Plasson SA, who also played a key delivery and commissioning role across the broader project
Client Testimonial
"I am very happy with the product. The uniformity is excellent, even with the low ceiling height, and the dimming is in a different league. The ability to dim from 0.01V creates a true dusk-to-dawn effect, which keeps the birds calm throughout the cycle. I also really like the seamless wiring system — no joins or connections from front to back. It's simple, robust, and works extremely well."
— Dr. Chris Travers, Owner, Tahila Broilers
Conclusion
Tahila Broilers is a compelling example of what is achievable when advanced engineering, smart technology, and practical poultry farming expertise come together. From an off-grid AI-controlled energy system to precision environmental management and high-performance LED poultry lighting, the project sets a new standard for modern commercial poultry farming in Africa.
Sunbird Lighting's 3W lighting system was integral to that achievement, delivering measurable, engineered results: 83% uniformity, 68 lux average, and industry-leading dimming across every 153m house on the site.
Ready to achieve similar results on your poultry farm?
Contact Sunbird Lighting today for a custom LED lighting design tailored to your commercial operation.
Our proven systems deliver better bird performance, improved energy efficiency, and stronger returns.
Email us at info@sunbirdled.com to get started.
Let Sunbird Lighting help transform your farm with the right light.