Document type : Article published in Dairy Global
Authors: Jennifer Van Os, Rekia Salter, Kim Reuscher
Preview: Research has shown that pairs and small groups, when managed well, can provide clear benefits. Housing milk-fed calves with at least one social partner can result in triple-wins for animal welfare, calf growth performance, and consumer perception - all of which are important for the vitality and sustainability of the dairy industry.
Benefits for the calf
Companionship for calves can have a positive impact: they learn to play well with others of their kind. It is however important to maintain per-calf space allowance, meaning an increase in total space for pairs or groups. This larger space allows calves to show a wider range of natural behaviors, including playing. Having social contact early in life helps them learn appropriate social interactions and also improves their other learning abilities.
Calves raised in social groups show flexibility and adaptability to change, including a better willingness to try new feeds such as hay and Total mixed ration. This translates into improved resilience to stress and less bellowing during weaning. When regrouped after weaning, they start feeding sooner and do not show the same growth check that individually raised calves commonly do. […]
Pair or group housing options
Social housing can be done in many ways, either in a calf barn or outdoors in huts or super huts. Oftentimes people picture 'group housing' to mean large group pens with automatic milk feeders. Indeed, about a third of producers in our sample who group house use auto-feeders. The most common method, however, was housing calves in pairs or groups in a barn and feeding them manually, either with mob feeders or with individual bottles or buckets. Interestingly, 1 in 5 producers using pairs or groups house their calves outdoors, either with 'super hutches' or by connecting individual huts. For producers who currently use outdoor huts, connecting pairs of existing huts allows them a way to dip their toes into pair housing without a substantial investment in new housing infrastructure or a major change to their management style.
