Air it out

You’d think that a new, curtain-sided calf barn would have plenty of fresh air circulating throughout to make respiratory challenges virtually nonexistent. But that wasn’t necessarily the case at Four Henrys Holsteins in West Liberty, Ohio. Solid panel dividers between pens stopped air flow and some calves struggled. So, the dairy removed the solid panels, opting instead for these open dividers and added a forced-air ventilation system to increase ventilation at calf level. Shortly thereafter, calf health improved significantly and death loss dropped to less than 2 percent. “There’s more nose-to-nose contact now, but the calves are doing so much better since we switched,” says dairy partner Mark Henry.

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