Performance of Dairy Calves Raised Indoors vs. Outdoors in the Milk-feeding Period in One Commercial Danish Dairy Farm

摘要

In Denmark, calves are traditionally raised indoors during the milk-feeding period. The use of outdoor housing is, however, becoming more common and applicable to Danish conditions. Increased outdoor housing systems have been advocated for various reasons, including animal welfare, decreased workload and increased profitability. Several investigators have been able to present results that favors outdoor systems over indoor systems. Reduced prevalence of Cryptosporidium, Eimeria and rotavirus among preweaned calves housed in hutches has been reported. Calves in hutches have also been reported to have increased immune response, increased plasma IgG, lower plasma Cortisol and reduced incidence of respiratory disease compared to calves housed indoors. The present case study was done to compare live weight gain and health between calves raised indoors and outdoors in one commercial dairy herd in Denmark.