The one-hour, live online educational sessions hosted by the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council (DCWC) are available to attendees around the world. These live webinars are free of charge for all, but you must register to attend. Recordings are available to active members of the DCWC (closed captioning available in Spanish, French, and more).

Webinar: Let’s put our heads together: Practical Strategies for Successful Social Housing of Dairy Calves

In the United States and elsewhere, the industry standard practice is individual housing of dairy heifer calves. However, scientific evidence has been building on a range of potential benefits for social housing – that is, raising calves in pairs or groups. Interest in social housing is growing, and according to the 2023 DCWC survey, the top-ranked webinar topic related to dairy calves was individual versus social calf housing strategies. Drs. Van Os and Cantor will jointly present an interactive webinar session in which we will briefly review the literature on the welfare and developmental outcomes of social versus individual calf housing. Then, we will discuss common challenges to practical implementation of pair or group housing, as well as potential solutions. Participants will engage with case study examples to evaluate farms’ readiness to adapt social housing and review management strategies for successful calf health and behavioral outcomes.

By: Dr. Jennifer Van Os – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Facilitator Co-Speaker: Dr. Melissa Cantor – Pennsylvania State University

Note: This “Industry Event” is not hosted by the National Dairy FARM Program and inclusion on this events calendar does not necessarily mean the event has an official FARM Program endorsement.