DSD 6.10 | Summary of Social Housing for Calves from Dairy Science Digest

DSD 6.10 | Summary of Social Housing for Calves

30 minutes Posted Oct 16, 2025 at 5:10 pm.

Introduction of Dr. Katarina Buckova 3:00 Why review / summarize paired housing research? 4:40 What age were calves paired 6:40 Performance & Health based observations of paired housing7:49 Body weight gain 8:58 Table 11 – Summary of all metrics 10:04 Volume of milk fed 11:31 Feed conversion ratio 12:22 Did you see scours? 13:50 Possible negative effects of paired housing 14:49 “No effect” is still important information 16:13 Calf behavior differences, coping18:58 Future research ideas20:29 What do you want “boots on the ground” dairymen to learn from this project?22:48 Discussion of paired vs group housing for new build25:20 Paired housing presence in FARM program?

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Individual housing for pre-weaned calves has long been gold standard, since it was first introduced in the 40s. However, interest has emerged around paired and group housing for this phase of production. Intermittent research on this topic has been published over the past 25 years but has never been compiled, until now. Dr. Katarina Buckova from IA State University, and her team combed through research databases and compiled the results of several projects on paired housing, compared to individually housed calves. Research on production, health and behavior illuminated gaps in knowledge needed for producers to effectively move forward on this production practice.

If your farm is considering paired or group housing, listen in for a compelling discussion about the impacts, perceived and measured, about how this calf development concept could impact the future of your herd.

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