The Basics of Group Housing

What is group housing?

Group housing for dairy calves refers to a management system where multiple calves are housed together in a shared space or enclosure as opposed to individual housing or pair housing. 

Group housing can be anywhere from three calves up; when calves are in an enclosed area such as a barn or gated pen, professionals tend to suggest keeping groups to 20 calves or less, however many dairyman have seen success even with larger groups assuming the calves have the necessary space and fresh air to thrive. This may be seen in a pasture calf rearing facility popular in areas like New Zealand.

Why choose group housing?

SO MANY REASONS!!

1. Social development: cows are social creatures. They are by nature, herd animals. Being in a group allows them to interact and learn from each other as well as increases exercise, play and promotion of physical and behavioral development. If calves are started in groups from birth, they can tune into these instincts from day one. This can lead to better social skills and therefore less stress during group transitions after weaning and beyond.
   While individually housed calves can typically see and hear other calves, they cannot touch or interact. Sharing a home with other calves can allow calves to share germs therefore strengthening and diversifying their microbiome and immunity.

2. Cost-effectiveness: group housing can be extremely cost when comparing labor and space requirements. Depending on the feeding style, there is much less manual labor involved such as washing bottle and buckets, individually bedding each hutch, and can even be a once a day feeding system if implementing mob feeding or robotics. If technology is utilized treating costs can also go down significantly. Group housing can allow for very efficient use of space as well. This can lead to extremely efficient management, ultimately supporting the goal of both productive and sustainable farming.

3. Improved feed intake: group housed calves often have better milk intakes due to a higher allotment allowed. They also tend to have better solid feed intakes when compared to individually housed calves. This is because of their herd mentality. When one calf begins eating, many more calves become interested in it. This continues through their calfhood. This can additionally lead to higher growth rates as well. 

There can certainly be some disadvantages such as an increased risk for illness spread, transition curve, and the initial investment. Both individual and group housing have their pros and cons and it is important to know and understand these possibilities in order to find the system that will work best for your team and calves.

Group Housing Best Practices

To make group housing work for you, I suggest not only finding a strong team of people but additionally a team that will work together with the same mindset of preventing illness and keeping the welfare of the calf at the forefront of all decisions.

Here are some additional best practices you may want to implement:

1. Intentional grouping: create groups based on age, size and health to minimize bullying and stress. Try to keep age gap below 2 weeks, ideally similar birth weights and only healthy calves should be introduced into the group.

2. Space and environment: pens must be designed for the size of the oldest calf in the pen with the largest number of calves that will enter the pen. This is crucial for calf health. It is always a good idea to over estimate these numbers as well. Your farm may expand. Your heifer groups may get backed up leaving no where for your weaned calves to go. Your calves may group bigger due to increased feed intakes.

3. Feeding strategy: implement a feeding strategy that promotes order and minimizes competition. If you intend to feed a limited amount of milk, consider MORE nipples than calves in a space that all calves (even your oldest calves in the pen) can squeeze in side by side fairly comfortably. If you intend to feed an unlimited amount of milk, consider herd mentality that many calves may want to drink at once as well as weaning. Consider the type of milk, the number of times calves will need fed in a day, the technology needed to maintain the feeding system, and any problems that could arise with that.

4. Monitoring and observation: there should be a routine system to monitor behavior and health of all calves as well as ensuring all calves are regularly eating and drinking especially for the first two weeks of living in group housing. Determine if this will be done with human observation alone or will there be some technology involved. What are the protocols involved with that?

5. Gradual introduction: when introducing new calves to a group, do so gradually to reduce stress. This could look like grouping calves together slowly (beginning with pairs and adding those pairs together, etc) or putting calves into the group but not requiring them to learn how to eat in a different way (still bottle feeding) for a couple of days.

If you are interested in group housing but don’t know where to start or would like some more detail on the best practices discussed above, be sure to check out my book available on Amazon- BARN GUIDE TO GROUP HOUSING CALVES. Linked here!