Catastrophic Calf Housing Holding Industry Back

Dairy farmers and calf-rearers could dig themselves out of what an animal scientist has described as their “current mess” by investing in decent housing - which would go a long way to combating pneumonia.

Jamie Robertson, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen has been stunned by the “unbelievably bad” calf setups he’s found on some farms that he has visited within the past two years.

“Young calves have been put in jerry-built structures next to the dairy – for less lugging of milk – many with holes in the walls providing lots of draughts at animal level. Controlled – or even natural – ventilation is often non-existent. It’s either draughts or nothing,” he says.

“Poorly drained beds seem to be the norm in some places, while low light levels ensure a high survival rate among the bugs. Twice-daily exposure to the respiration of adult cows near the dairy is handy for drug sales while vets’ pet hate is buildings where animals of different ages are mixed,” he said.

Another favourite, he says, seems to be housing calves in an old silage pit, whereby animals that have just left the 650 kg of warmth and succour provided by mum are surrounded by a couple of hundred tonnes of cold concrete. Even nicely-designed buildings with various wall claddings and reasonable air inlets often suffer from having no outlets for stale air in the roof.

Calf pneumonia costs a minimum of £2,000-£3,000 for every 100 calves reared and the problem is getting worse, not better, asserts Jamie. Almost a third of calves contract pneumonia. In the UK as a whole, losses are estimated at £80 million and 50,000 calves die each year.

However, the largest financial losses come from calves that survive and these range from £22-£82 per calf. The accumulated impact of pneumonia on young, exposed heifer calves is estimated at more than £100 after the first lactation and contributes to the 36 per cent of retained dairy heifers that do not make their second lactation.

Despite the scale of the problem, calves are not considered by many as worthy of investment and calf housing is frequently not a designed building but an adaptation of what may be available. “Too many producers are sitting on catastrophic calf set-ups and are looking to make minor changes that will solve their problems.”

Because there was no product on the market to meet what Jamie considered to be the essential housing requirements of calves of between one and 12 weeks old, he looked around for a building company with experience in the farming sector and knowledge of ventilation who could produce a house to his design. He teamed up with ARM Buildings of Rugeley, Staffs – part of the Perthshire-based A Proctor Group – to produce a brand new but cost-effective calf house incorporating his own ideas gathered from research and years of observation.

“Moisture control is a key part of the solution to calf pneumonia and the new building, called the ‘Clova’, is designed to achieve that. “ The use of a high level of insulation will enable us to run a decent ventilation rate without having to turn fans off because it is ‘too cold’ inside the building,” he said.

The new house, therefore, is constructed from special laminated panels, developed by ARM, with 72 mm of insulation and white, hygienic, PVC facings on the inside, with integral hopper-style windows in the walls. Ventilation is provided by a ‘neutral pressure’ system, whereby an equal quantity of air is both supplied to and extracted from the building. Proctor’s Aircare ducted system supplies a controlled amount of air to all parts of the building and roof extraction fans are fitted.

“The clean, uncluttered design avoids creating ‘dead’ zones which have minimal ventilation, helping to maintain a drier, more stable and healthier building environment,” says Jamie.
Measuring 8m x 12m x 2.5 m to the eaves it contains eight 3m x 3m pens holding up to eight calves apiece.

ARM provides a full service including obtaining any necessary planning permission, base-work, building, galvanised steel pen divisions, plumbing, electrics and ventilation. The house costs £29,500, plus £6,900 for an extra 3m bay with feed preparation area and hospital pen.

“Despite pneumonia and scouring being two major problems with calf rearing, we have largely taken our eyes off the ball with calf rearing and seem to be relying mostly on medication and nutrition. But we really need to get back to basics and provide calves
with a clean, dry bed to lie on and fresh air to breath,” says Jamie. “Look what we have achieved with poultry and what we have learnt from pigs. With the dairy industry under such pressure, education should be our first priority so that farmers realise how much cash they are not making and then get them to invest in buildings with the right detail to get the job right.”

In business terms, with current losses running into thousands of pounds annually, he maintains investing in the right sort of housing will pay for itself well within ten years, apart from providing dramatic improvements to health and welfare of the calves themselves.