Smooth Moves

Three calves with yellow ear tags lying on straw inside a shelter with open windows and green grass outside.

Amery, WI

Providing this dairy farm with 5 Calf-Tel super hutches, panels, and everything needed to make the system work, Kinder Ground supported the farms’ adoption of a smoother transition to group housing.

Two calves rest inside a small white shelter on a farm, with a metal gate and feed troughs in front.

The Goal:

Make Change Less Stressful

Funding provided: $8,697.50

Animal lives improved each year: 250

Dairy calves housed in individual hutches cannot socialize, and may have limited space to move around, and ability to choose their microenvironment. The objective of this project was to explore low-input, high-value changes to individual calf hutches, and housing for older calves, that will support better welfare.

The Outcomes:

Size matters and timing is everything

Age and floor space are key factors in deciding how many calves can be housed together in a super hutch.

Don't overcrowd

Baby steps

Early on, the farm found they had to work out some kinks with the new system. They were originally moving 4 heifers at 10 weeks after weaning and staying there for 4 weeks. They found it helped a lot with post-weaned heifer pen bottlenecks but that calves were getting too dirty.

They have started moving calves at 12 weeks in groups of 3 before moving them into groups of 6 at 15-16 weeks of age.

Check out The Dairyland Initiative for information on calf housing.

Lessons learned

Some project applications present with big plans and lofty goals related to data collection. With this project (and a couple of others), our instincts have proven reliable.

Making things better does not have to be complicated and trying to do too much at once hinders success more than it helps.

This project set out to implement 3 changes and work with students to track welfare outcomes. In the end they were only able to complete 1 of the project objectives. That’s OK! The change that was made made things better for the heifers and that is what we want to see.

Download Cattle Housing & Comfort Poster

What Farmers Are Saying

“I am very happy with the super hutches, they have given us a lot of flexibility, and I have been able to use our experiences to share with probably 5 to 8 clients of mine so far.”

- Bethany, Dairy farmer Amery, WI

Three calves stand in a gated outdoor pen with calf hutches behind them on a farm.

There is no one right way to raise calves, other than raising healthy ones. Smaller groups, larger pen sizes, earlier socialization are all possibilities. Taking it step by step, with an open mind, is the key to success.