Discover how science-led, connected lighting can support animal well-being, improve farm efficiency, and contribute to more sustainable food production.

Introduction – Shining a Light on an Overlooked Factor

Light is more than a way to illuminate a barn. In animal agriculture, it is an important environmental factor that can influence animal behavior, welfare, and production performance.

Different species respond to light in different ways. The right combination of light spectrum, intensity, distribution, and timing can help producers create environments that better support their animals while improving farm efficiency.

Advances in LED technology and connected lighting make it possible to tailor lighting programs to the needs of specific species and production environments. By bringing animal science, practical farm management, and innovative technology together, lighting can play an important role in building more productive and sustainable farms.

The Animal Welfare Connection

Animals have biological rhythms and behavioral needs that are influenced by light. A well-designed lighting program considers these needs and helps create an environment that supports appropriate activity, feeding, resting, and other natural behaviors.

For producers, this means looking beyond brightness alone. Light spectrum, intensity, distribution, and daily schedules all matter when designing an environment for animal welfare and performance.

Dr. Aaron Stephan, Innovation Director – Signify | Agriculture

“Through years of R&D, we’ve adopted a continuous improvement approach toward animal welfare. Farm animals are living, thinking, behaving individuals. We want to make sure they are also thriving. We apply the scientific method to test new lighting programs and evaluate what specific outcomes they have on the health, productivity, and well-being of the animals.

“Our Junglite recipe, which was developed for commercial broiler chickens, reduces specific behavioral outcomes of fear by 20% and physiological outcomes of distress by 35%. We’ve since upgraded this recipe to include a ‘Jungle Moon’ option, which reduces fasting-induced stress at night by enabling eating during the night period.

“Our Optient product line improves crowd-management dynamics within a barn by creating a more complex and enriched environment. This promotes specific feeding behaviors near feed lines and resting behaviors away from feed lines. Both Junglite and Optient, due to their positive effects on bird behavior, result in a 3% reduction of feed input requirements, which gives an immediate financial return for farmers and integrators.”

Note: Confirm the quoted wording and supporting research for these specific results before publication.

Sustainability Through Smarter Lighting

Supporting animal welfare is only part of the opportunity. Modern lighting technology can also help producers manage energy consumption, reduce maintenance demands, and improve resource efficiency.

LED and connected lighting systems can offer several advantages:

• Improved energy efficiency: Replacing less-efficient lighting with LED technology can significantly reduce lighting-related energy consumption, depending on the existing system and farm conditions.
• Longer service life: Durable, long-lasting lighting can reduce replacement frequency, maintenance time, and waste.
• More targeted lighting: Optimized light distribution and tailored lighting programs can help producers deliver light where and when it is needed.
• Potential feed-efficiency benefits: Research and product-specific trials can help identify lighting strategies that support more efficient production.

Feed efficiency is particularly important to sustainability. Producing animal feed requires resources and energy for growing, processing, drying, transporting, and storing grain. Improvements in feed conversion can therefore have environmental benefits beyond the farm itself.

The scale of those benefits depends on the production system, the lighting solution, and the results achieved. Evaluating both animal performance and energy consumption provides a more complete picture of lighting's contribution to farm sustainability.

Joshua Muonio, Engineering Director – Signify | Agriculture

“Our NatureDynamics connected lighting system is a great example of how we incorporate sustainability into our products while achieving real results in poultry barns. This system uses an optimized spectrum and intensity of light in specific areas of the barn to improve the process of raising chickens.

“It is built to withstand the tough barn environment, including exposure to gases like ammonia, and can handle pressure washing during barn cleanings. The lights are designed to last 50,000 hours, far longer than traditional lighting, which typically lasts 1,000 to 2,000 hours. This means fewer lights need to be replaced over time, reducing maintenance demands and lighting waste.

“Additionally, the system's optimized layout and light spectrum can help improve feed efficiency compared with other lighting options. Feed savings can lower grain costs while also reducing the resources and emissions associated with feed production and delivery.”

Note: Confirm the quote with Joshua before publication, especially the product-life comparison and feed-efficiency claims. Any quantified feed savings should be linked to the applicable research or trial results.

Real-World Applications: From Poultry Farms to Aquaculture

The value of lighting technology becomes clearer when it is applied to real production challenges.

In poultry production, the right lighting solution can help producers manage energy use, maintain consistent illumination, and create environments designed around bird needs. Signify's customer story from Hidden Acres Poultry, for example, describes how a lighting and dimming system helped the farm reduce energy costs by 67%.

In aquaculture, tailored lighting can help address the specific needs of fish and their production environments. Signify's work with Havlandet demonstrates how customized LED lighting can be applied in salmon farming.

These examples illustrate why lighting should be considered as part of a broader production strategy. The right solution depends on the species, facility, operating conditions, and goals of the producer.

Explore the customer stories:

• How ONCE by Signify Helped a Poultry Farm Cut Energy Costs by 67%
• Revolutionizing Salmon Farming with Custom LED Lighting at Havlandet

Feeding the World More Sustainably

As global demand for food grows, producers face the challenge of using resources efficiently while supporting animal health and welfare. Meeting that challenge requires progress across many areas, from nutrition and housing to biosecurity, farm management, and technology.

Lighting is one part of this bigger picture, but it is an important one. Science-led, species-specific lighting can help producers make more informed decisions about their animals' environments while exploring opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce waste.

Connected lighting adds another layer of control, allowing producers to manage lighting programs more precisely and adapt them to their production goals.

Better Light. Better Animals. Better Outcomes.

Lighting may not be the first factor people consider when thinking about animal care, but it can play a meaningful role in how animals experience their environment and how farms operate.

By combining scientific research, species-specific lighting, and connected technology, Signify Animal Lighting works to help producers create better environments for animals and more efficient farms.

Because better lighting is not just about what we see. It is about the outcomes we help create for animals, farmers, and the future of food production.