Where are your calves?

Where are your calves right now?

Hopefully where they are supposed to be! But beyond that, where are they right now, exactly?

Are they in their hut?

In the middle of the pen?

Against the wall of the barn?

In a cluster? Spread out?

It seems like we are always trying to outsmart the system when it comes to building calf barns and setting up the ideal microclimate for calves.

No scientific article or engineer can tell you what your calves like better than your calves can.

We hear often that people, in general, have a lot of success in calf huts, why is that?

To be completely honest with you, we don’t have the exact answer for you, but we do have some questions that might help you find the answer on your farm.  

When you look outside at your calf huts at 5:30 am in June when it’s 60F, where are your calves? Are they laying outside or inside? 

Where are they at 12:00pm when it’s 90F? Are they inside or outside?

When it’s windy, where are your calves? When it’s calm where are they?

Under almost all circumstances, when given the choice, calves will be inside the hut, and they’re really happy in there!

Say you go inside the hut and you think it’s too hot, smelly, or otherwise, are you going to force your calves to go outside if they want to be in the hut? Probably not!

Now, apply that same strategy to a calf barn. Your calves are all resting, where are they laying? Go lay where they are laying with a t-shirt on, what does it feel like? Is there a lot of air moving? How does the air smell?

I think you might be surprised to learn that calves will typically choose a smellier environment over a drafty one, especially when they are younger. 

This is something that is specific to each farm, mainly because of barn or hut location, climate, time of year, and many other factors that we can’t tell you what the right way to do it is, no one can, but next time you’re out with the calves, take some time to just watch them. They will teach you a lot.

Are you wondering if your calf barn ventilation is just right for your calves? Let us help you figure it out. Send us an email to set up a ventilation consultation.