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Two calf heads better than one

Jennifer Van Os
Oct 3, 2019
Oct 3, 2019

Holstein calves share pen — One way of socially housing calves is with adjacent hutches sharing a fenced area, as with a pair in an ongoing research study at University of Wisconsin-Blaine Dairy.
University of Wisconsin

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Jennifer Van Os

When raising calves studies have shown that two – or more – heads are better than one in several ways. Housing milk-fed calves with at least one social partner can be a win-win-win in terms of animal welfare, calf-growth performance and consumer perception.

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Jennifer Van Os is an assistant professor and University of Wisconsin-Extension specialist in animal welfare in the department of dairy science at UW-Madison. Email jvanos@wisc.edu to reach her.