How smarter livestock housing delivers healthier calves

For many dairy and beef herds, calf housing is often the ‘missing piece’ of the system – from repurposed sheds with draughty corners to hutches that swing from freezing to sweltering in a single day. The two-year CEVEC (Cost Effective Ventilated Environment for Calves) project set out with a simple question:

How far can we move the dial on calf health, growth and long-term performance with a consistently optimised environment?

The answer, backed by data collated by our project partner, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), is a long way.

Livestock housing built around the calf

At Ross Vance’s High Skeog Farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Galebreaker designed and built a purpose-built calf unit with four group pens and dedicated early-life calf boxes. The building integrates:

• Positive pressure VentTube ventilation, delivering fresh air at low speeds across the width of the building to flush out pathogens without chilling calves.
• Automated curtains and Rollerscreens, regulating natural ventilation and light, and opening the building up to more than 40 air changes per hour in warm weather.
• Targeted heating – heated calf box lids and radiant pen heaters – keeping the youngest calves in their thermoneutral zone without having to warm the entire airspace.
• Continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity, CO₂, ammonia and light via the Galebreaker iSeries controller.

Calves reared in this controlled environment were compared with calves from the farm’s existing outdoor hutch system.

Improving daily live weight gain (DLWG) from the same milk

With the same milk allowance (7.2 litres/day), calves reared in the CEVEC building achieved average daily liveweight gains (DLWG) of ~0.81 kg/day, compared to ~0.69 kg/day in hutches – an uplift of around 120 –150 g/day attributed to the housed environment rather than extra feed.

Reducing heat and cold stress in calves

Thermal data collected from the CEVEC trial showed that:

• Hutches routinely tracked external winter temperatures and could swing by up to 23°C across a 24-hour period.
• In summer hutches recorded at up to +12°C above the external temperature.
• The CEVEC building stayed within 2–5°C of ambient in summer and significantly reduced calves’ exposure to extreme cold in winter, keeping them in the thermoneutral zone (10 – 22°C) for much more of the time.

Providing environmental stability means calves use less energy on thermoregulation with more going into skeletal growth and immune function.

Calves with healthier lungs

Respiratory disease is one of the biggest welfare and performance challenges in youngstock. Over the two-year CEVEC trial, SRUC researchers used lung ultrasound scanning to track lesions in both groups.

The findings were clear:

• Average exit lung scores were significantly lower in CEVEC calves than in hutch-reared calves.
• The increase in lesion score between entry and exit scans was smaller in the CEVEC building, indicating less cumulative lung damage over the rearing period.

Reduced lesion scores mean fewer ‘pneumonia scars’ – the sub-clinical damage that can impact lifetime growth and milk yield.

As our technical director Andrew Gardner puts it: “A calf’s early life sets the trajectory for a productive lifetime – the CEVEC data gives us a robust evidence base that optimised environments improve welfare as well as productivity.”

Targeted treatment for calves

Interestingly, recorded treatment rates were higher in the CEVEC groups than in hutches. That doesn’t mean calves were sicker. Instead, it reflects how automation changed the way staff used their time.

With the automatic feeder and Smartbell WellCalf tags flagging changes in intake, temperature and activity, staff could act earlier and more proactively, often treating calves before visible clinical signs developed.

Freed from bucket feeding, labour could be reallocated to observation, hygiene and targeted interventions – supporting welfare as well as performance.

Better calf health in the first 30 days

One of the most significant findings of the project is the importance of the first month of life. By keeping calves:

• Warm and dry in heated calf boxes during the first few days
• In stable, low-humidity air with no draughts
• In small, consistent groups with good visibility for staff

…CEVEC helped protect calves during the window when they are most vulnerable to scour and pneumonia.

The combination of environmental control and refined management meant calves were leaving the pre-weaning stage heavier, with healthier lungs and better resilience for the next stage of life.

CEVEC improved calf health summary

For producers, the welfare story highlight by SRUC’s research is simple:

• Calves spend more time in their comfort zone
• They grow faster on the same nutrition
• They carry less long-term lung damage
• Staff can spot and treat problems earlier

The CEVEC project shows that when we design buildings around the calf – rather than trying to adapt old infrastructure – we see measurable welfare gains that also support future productivity.

Speak to a member of the Animal Welfare team to learn more about the benefits of the CEVEC calf building – 01531 637 900

Read more in the CEVEC series of blogs:

• Reduced labour costs
• Better sustainability
• Design and RIO

Register / listen to the Digital Dairy Chain webinar to discover more about the results of our groundbreaking study transforming calf housing, health and farm efficiency.