Shropshire Farming Talk: Investing in your Youngstock Environment
While there are various housing options for calves, all must be tailored to the needs of the animal, with the goal of maximising performance, optimising health, and adhering to welfare standards.
Calf housing must meet certain fundamentals: being dry, draught-free, clean, and comfortable.
Hygiene
Effective hygiene is a basic design requirement for calf pens and calf buildings. All materials used within the area of the calf (i.e. floor, pen walls, drains) should be easy to clean and maintain.
Feed & Water
The preferred method of milk feeding for calf health and productivity is through a teat feeder. Group pens with teat feeders should permit easy access for the stockperson to help all calves in the group to access a teat. The choice of milk feed system should define the optimum group pen size for any particular farm.
Dry feed is best presented to individual calves in shallow bowls or buckets, so that quantities can be kept low, daily intakes are easy to see and spoilage is limited. A trough for dry feed should be located more than 2m from a drinker to reduce the amount of feed that ends up in the drinking bowl.
A calf system can be designed with a feed preparation and cleaning area as an integral part of the system. A calf kitchen is an obvious component to support calf health and growth. It should also serve to improve the effectiveness of labour and make a routine task more pleasant.
Temperature
Regardless of the housing system, a newborn calf will feel cold when the temperature drops below 10–15°C. The temperature felt by a calf is a combination of the ambient air temperature, airspeed and relative humidity.
When calves feel cold, they will spend more time lying down, which reduces the external body area exposed to the atmosphere, so it’s important to consider lying space and bedding when designing your calf shed.
The link between temperature and humidity is described as the Temperature Humidity Index (THI), which is normally used to describe warm and hot conditions. When THI reaches 72+, calves start to exhibit signs of heat stress.
Stagnant air can be contaminated with dust, moisture, ammonia and viruses, which can cause pneumonia. Cobwebs in buildings and condensation on the underside of roofing are signs of poor ventilation. Many buildings used to accommodate calves can be improved by modifying the sidewall cladding or inlet ventilation to improve the natural airflow.
By Louisa Lloyd, NWF Technical Formulator, www.nwfagriculture.co.uk
