CEVEC Project Overview- Smarter livestock housing is the missing piece in calf rearing systems

For many dairy and beef herds, calf housing is often the ‘missing piece’ in the system. During a two-year collaboration between Galebreaker, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and High Skeog Farm in Dumfries and Galloway, the CEVEC (Cost Effective Ventilated Environment for Calves) project tested the extent to which a smarter, purpose-built calf environment could optimise performance.

What is CEVEC?

CEVEC is a research and demonstration project focused on creating a cost-effective, ventilated calf-rearing building that supports healthier calves, stronger growth and more efficient daily routines through modern building design and environmental control.

Completed in September 2025, the project has been supported through the Digital Dairy Chain’s Collaborative Research & Development Grant Competition, managed and awarded independently by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Why does calf housing matter?

A calf’s early life sets the trajectory for lifetime productivity. CEVEC’s results reinforce that when ventilation, monitoring and shed design work together, farms can unlock measurable gains in health, performance and efficiency.

Key research findings at a glance

• Daily liveweight gains: up to +150g/day for youngstock housed in the purpose-built shed
• Respiratory health: lung scans showed a significant reduction in the severity of lung lesions, indicating fewer pneumonia scars
• Labour savings: in a four-pen building (65 calves), estimated savings of £60,136 per year, cutting labour costs by 80%+ versus an individual hutch system
• Return on investment: estimated payback of 4 to 5 years
• Sustainability potential: projected longer-term milk production emissions reduction of up to 5% through improvements such as calf mortality, age at first calving and milk yield

Find out more about the CEVEC project

To provide focused insights into the research and its findings, we have published a series of blogs exploring a specific area. Discover the detail behind the headlines and get practical takeaways for your farm.

• Health and welfare

What the growth data and lung scanning results tell us, plus what ‘better air’ looks like in day-to-day calf health management.

Read CEVEC blog 1 (Health and welfare)

• How CEVEC turns better calf housing into better returns

A closer look at the building concept, what makes it ‘cost effective’, and how the project’s ROI modelling stacks up for different herd sizes.

Read CEVEC blog 2 (Design and ROI)

• How CEVEC reduces calf rearing workloads

How remote checks and streamlined routines can free up time, improve flexibility, and reduce labour costs at scale.

Read CEVEC blog 3 (Labour saving)

• How CEVEC supports sustainability

How improvements in mortality, age at first calving and milk yield can translate into lower emissions, plus what the ‘up to 5%’ figure really means.

Read CEVEC blog 4 (Sustainability)

• Farm case study

Background insight into High Skeog Farm and how farmer Ross Vance became involved in the CEVEC project.

Read the Case Study here.

• What’s next for CEVEC?

Coming soon! We’ll be announcing some exciting developments following the publication of the project findings. Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date

Upcoming webinar: Inside the CEVEC Project

Digital Dairy Chain is hosting a live webinar where the team will share the groundbreaking results and discuss how the building can be commercially scaled for different herd sizes.

• Date: Wednesday 11 February 2026
• Time: 10:00 to 11:30 (UK time)

Discover why and how the CEVEC building was designed and built:

• Key principles behind the structure
• Ventilation strategy and environmental control
• Cost-effective engineering decisions that shaped the final design

Results from the 12-month calf trial, presenting the performance of the CEVEC system compared with a traditional hutch system, including:

• Calf health outcomes
• Treatment and morbidity data
• Growth rates and performance metrics
• Running costs and labour comparisons
• Carbon footprint reduction analysis
• Return on investment modelling

Watch the Project Video here:

Watch the results webinar here;