Two Housing Systems for Calves

Thirty-six male Holstein calves were in an experiment with 2 X 2 factorial design with the objective of comparing management systems and milk feeding. Housing systems were similar except calves on A system were housed in pens .66 m wide with grated floors whereas calves on B system were in pens that were 1.36 m wide with solid floors bedded with straw. Within each management system nine calves were fed milk at 8% of body weight and nine calves at 12% of body weight. There was no interaction between management system and feeding percent. Preweaning calves fed more milk gained faster (.64 versus .50 kg/day) compared with calves fed less. Management system did not influence body weight gain or feed conversion prior to weaning, but postweaning A system resulted in slower gains (.74 versus .90 kg/day) and less favorable feed conversion (2.00 versus 1.77 kg dry matter intake/kg body weight gain) than calves housed under the B system. Eosinophil count was higher during 5th and 7th wk of the experiment for calves housed in A compared with B system. Measurements of body weight gain and feed conversion were effective in differentiating between two housing systems for calves.