5 things you need to know about calf housing requirements

Too much moisture supports microbial activity and promotes bacterial growth in some species. Moisture also absorbs energy which is often a limiting factor to calf health and growth. Lying liquid also acts as a transport medium making it easier to spread disease around a calf unit, as well as potentially increasing stress by causing slippery floors. This will contribute to increased straw bed usage; with increasing costs, waste should be minimised.

How to tell if there is too much moisture?

When it comes to indicators of too much moisture in calf housing frequently seen would be standing dirty water, damp floors in areas that could be dry, condensation, staining or mould growth on the underside of the roof and dirty cattle (particularly the knees and back legs).

The most important factor to reducing excess moisture is to have proper waste management, which includes a fall on the floor. The fall of the floor should be 1 in 20 below straw. For this reason, other forms of flooring aren’t generally recommended due to not being able to be thoroughly cleaned. The fall should then lead to drainage within the pen to avoid wet areas outside the pen.

Drainage should also be between calf pens, within the building and outside too. Manure and waste straw management should be done effectively away from the calves as much as possible. Providing good gutters and downpipes around the building to avoid any excess rainwater entering the calf building is also greatly important. Having air inlets and outlets will help to provide a dryer atmosphere.

Lack of air movement in calf housing increases the survival time of airborne pathogens and increases the concentration of gaseous emissions and reduces oxygen concentrations, which can reduce the effectiveness of the respiratory tract defences. A calf building with not enough fresh air will smell of ammonia and dampness and generally have a warmer air temperature and inevitably dark damp corners.

Encourage fresh air to enter the shed. 100% fresh air kills airborne bugs 10x quicker than 50% fresh air. To encourage increased fresh air in calf buildings the use of air inlets and outlets should be considered. It is important to note that calf housing will not have any stacking effect. All calf housing (unless Igloos, or HHU) needs a fan and a duct.

View lighting and ventilation range

Too much wind speed (draught) is often associated with excessive energy losses. A calves lower critical temperature is 15°C and if this is exasperated with a draught a young calf can become chilled extremely quickly. Calves in a draught will often display a hairy coat, have high intakes but low production outputs (DLWG) and may tend to huddle together to keep warm or avoid certain areas of the shed altogether.

Calves in smaller pens may not have the luxury of being able to move away from the draught, therefore every pen must be looked at carefully to ensure no pens are directly in a draught. Too little airspeed will result in animals avoiding certain areas of the shed, there will be a smell/ammonia build-up and animal health could become sub-optimum.

Provide good air inlets and outlets. Protection from the wind above animal height should also be provided and consider more use of perforated wall cladding and aim to eliminate draughts at animal height. Air inlets and outlets a simple assessment of the building will help to establish good air inlets and outlets.

The lower critical temperature for calves in the first week of life is 15°C. Therefore for many months of the year newborn and young calves are born into an environment where they are cold stressed.

This combined with the poor thermal properties of calf housing such as dampness, tin roof, concrete walls and the fact that often there is no energy in a calf shed to drive the stack effect results in calves that are using more energy to keep warm rather than proportioning energy to fighting disease of growth.

In calf housing, the use of stock boarding/plastic cladding and sheeted gates should be massively encouraged. Not only is stock board more hygienic and easier to clean when a calf rests against it energy isn’t being leached out into the concrete but maintained within the calf.

Ensuring the calf environment is dry and well bedded by regularly checking water troughs and providing adequate drainage will help to minimise cold stress. Using a Wisconsin nest score is a useful tool to help identify if bedding down is completed sufficiently for the time of year. 

Hygiene within the calf shed should be of utmost importance and an inadequate hygiene protocol will mean the reoccurrence and spread of potentially deadly pathogens. An unhygienic environment will result in a calf not meeting performance targets and a high disease morbidity rate. Poor hygiene often manifests itself in a high rate of scours, joint illness and respiratory disease.

A rigorous hygiene and disinfection programme can help to minimise disease outbreaks. Making the calf building easy to clean will mean a more successful procedure and it is more likely to get some to an acceptable standard.

Removing the biofilm, allowing pens to have the minimum recommended contact time for the disinfectant and through drying time are key elements to the best practice for hygiene. The use of heat, UV and steam are also recommended, but perhaps the simplest of all is time. Give the pens/ equipment time to rest if possible between calves or groups of calves.