9 tips on indoor housing for young calves

And how do you arrange the barn so that it is easy to clean? With the innovative calf housing system CalfOTel® Combo, you can put together the ideal indoor housing for your young calves entirely as you wish. Barn climate Young calves have difficulty maintaining their body temperature, especially in the first 2-3 weeks of life. Therefore, the barn climate is an important consideration when housing young calves indoors. Although more sheltered indoors, care still needs to be taken to ensure airflow in the barn. Make sure calves do not face drafts or suffer from cold fall. Tip 1: Choose lower ceilings For example, make the storage of hay or straw above the pens. This creates a lower ceiling above the calves as well as utilizing the space above the pens. The straw or hay is then also readily available. You can also place boards over the pens. This is a good solution from a practical point of view, but it means extra work when cleaning the pens. Tip 2: Leave space between the pens and the outside wall This allows cold air to fall behind the pens instead of into the pens. Ventilation Make sure there is enough fresh and clean air in the barn. Ventilation must of course be ample so that the calves get clean, fresh air and the contaminated air is properly removed. Tip 3: Provide active ventilation A good ventilation system gives more control so you can be sure that the fresh air is properly sent to the calves without creating annoying draught. Also, with active ventilation, you prevent areas in the barn where the air is not refreshed enough. Tip 4: Choose pens with ventilation slots Make sure there is extra airflow in the pens by choosing ventilation slots on the back of the pens. The back walls of the CalfOTel® Combo System are completely closed as standard. On request, the rear walls can be supplied with ventilation slots. Floor layout A well laid-out floor saves a lot of labor and makes the job a lot easier. Do you need a lot of calf pens? Then choose double rows. This saves costs and space. Tip 5: Choose pens with a plastic back wall The CalfOTel® Combo System is available in several configurations. You can choose between a system with a plastic back wall, which can be mounted freely in the room or a system without a plastic back wall, which must be placed against an existing wall. By choosing pens with a back wall, you can easily create double rows. Tip 6: Place the posts on a concrete elevation A concrete elevation reduces the chance of hitting a post when mucking out. A concrete elevation also helps keep the feed alley clean. The elevation keeps straw, manure and urine from running into the front alley. Note: Do not make the elevation too high. This will also raise the feed fence. Our recommendation is an elevation of about 5 centimeters. Tip 7: Choose a flexible layout Duo housing is currently on the rise. More and more dairy farmers are choosing to keep young calves in pairs. By choosing pens whose side walls can be removed, you can put calves together individually, in pairs or in small groups. Learn more about the benefits of duo housing? Check out our page 'Calf Rearing'. Cleaning The best way to muck out the pens is to remove the side walls for each row. After the side walls are removed, the manure packs can be removed from the side with a small scraper. It will not be possible in all cases to clean an entire row of pens from the side. This is why the back panels and enclosure fences of the CalfOTel® Indoor system can also be removed easily and without tools. Tip 8: Provide a place to clean outdoors By cleaning the panels and enclosure fences outdoors, you prevent unintentionally introducing pathogens into the barn via spray mist, which can make other calves sick. In addition, there is often more space outside and you can quickly dry the panels and feeding gates outside. Tip 9: Create separate compartments When setting up a large system, we recommend creating separate compartments. This allows you to clean the pens in each compartment without exposing calves from other departments to spray mist and pathogens. You could then even clean the panels and enclosure fences inside as well. Need help? Are you unsure what the best setup for your barn is? If so, please contact us. We will be happy to help you out and prepare 2D or 3D floor plan if required.