Outdoor Individual Portable Pens Compared with Conventional Housing for Raising Dairy Calves

Abstract

Thirty-two new-born calves were divided equally and placed in individual outdoor portable pens or in a barn and . exercise lot during a test covering 2 yrs. During the 2nd yr., half the calves in each system of management were given inoculations with rumen fluid. Pen calves were placed on a site which was clean the 1st yr. and slightly contaminated by older animals the 2nd yr. Despite temps. as low as 9[degree]F., calves in the portable pens made significantly greater wt. gains both yrs. and had fewer coccidia and worm parasites and less diarrhea than the barn calves. All calves in the barn had respiratory troubles, but only 1 calf in the pens had this trouble. One barn calf died from pneumonia following an attack by Eimeria zurnii. Growth response of calves fed rumen fluid did not differ significantly from that of uninoculated calves. Placed together on pasture at the age of 5 or 6 mos., portable pen calves showed no more susceptibility to coccidia and worm parasites than calves from the barn and continued to maintain their superior wts.