Preferred features of barns associated with improved calf health

摘要

For over some twenty years, our clinical group has investigated calf health problems in dairy herds across the United States. In 2004, we conducted a research trial to explore the air quality in naturally ventilated calf barns and to study the factors associated with reduced prevalence of calf respiratory disease (Lago and others 2006). Over the past 6 years, our clinical service has designed hundreds of positive pressure ventilation systems for a wide variety of calf barns. Most have been installed to supplement naturally ventilated barns, but others have gone into in a variety of barn types. From this perspective acquired from a vast number and variety of calf barns, we have developed preferences for certain design features that are associated with improved calf health. We view the well-managed individual calf hutch as being the optimal housing for a calf, but it can be a brutal environment for the calf caretakers. With careful design and management, we believe that calf barns can equal hutches as excellent environments for nursing calves