Impacts of Individual and Pair Housing on Calves

Abstract

Calf rearing is a large financial cost to farms, with particular importance for dairy heifer replacements where the forward investment does not receive any pay-back for 3 to 4 years. Ensuring the critical pre-weaning phase is carried out optimally and understanding the impact that housing has on this time are important. Historically, individual calf housing has been used to reduce disease transmission between calves, but there is limited evidence that pair housing has any detrimental impact on this. Instead, research over the past decade has served to highlight the range of benefits that pair housing can provide. Pair-housed calves start to eat concentrates at an earlier age and in greater amounts, although this does not always translate to increased growth rates during the pre-weaning period. Pair housing allows calves to start forming social relationships, which can have a calming effect in stressful situations and can improve behaviour when heifers enter the milking herd. Additionally, calves housed with others have increased play behaviours, which is a positive indicator of well-being. This growing body of evidence suggests that pair housing of calves results in overall better health and welfare compared to individual housing; therefore, practitioners should help encourage farmers to move towards this housing type. © The Author 2023