Successful housing and management of cows 21 days before and after calving is critical to the overall success of the herd. This episode focuses on transition cow management, pen sizing, grouping strategies, and the economic benefits of providing transition cows with a comfortable place to rest and adequate space to eat.

Our understanding of transition cow management and facility design has advanced significantly over the past 20 years with our focus shifting solely from nutrition to emphasizing the importance of understanding cow behavior around calving. This episode delves into feeding behavior, re-grouping stress, and what key performance indicators of transition cow health managers should look at when evaluating their transition cow programs. 

Designing a PPTV system is one thing, but putting it in the barn is another. Challenges with where to place the fan and tube, and how to direct the air jets into the calf pens all need to be considered. Once the system is installed, how do you know that it's working? This episode covers the practical aspects of PPTV installations so that you're confident the system is working the next time you see one in a barn.

To overstock or not to overstock? That is the question! We discuss the negative impacts of overstocking on cow behavior, the economic impacts, and what overstocking means for the industry.

Almost every calf barn in the Midwest has a positive pressure tube ventilation system (PPTV) installed, but what is it and how does it function? We cover the primary principles of choosing a fan, picking a tube, and positioning the holes so that a known quantity of air is delivered to the calf pen without creating a draft in the winter.

You installed a ventilation system, now what? How do you know if your ventilation/heat abatement system is up to par? We outline how to measure air speeds in stalls, what observations to make in the barn, and how to measure cow respiration rate.

There is no one perfect ventilation design that can be used universally given the wide variety of dairy barns and climates, but there are key criteria that need to be met when designing ventilation systems for adult dairy cows. We discuss how heat stress affects cows, the 6 common ventilation systems, and the 4 criteria for effective ventilation design.

There are various ways to ventilate a calf barn (natural, cross, tunnel, or neutral pressure ventilation systems), with natural ventilation supplemented with positive pressure tubes (PPTV) being the most common way. We go through the elements of naturally ventilated barns such as sidewall heights, ridge openings, and curtain management, and discuss how PPTV systems became of interest.

In this episode, we discuss what design elements every calf barn should have no matter how calves are raised. Stocking density, resting space, nesting scores, drainage, and ventilation are all part of the equation for ensuring that calves have a comfortable, dry place to rest and thrive.

Deep loose bedded sand stalls are best for cow comfort because we see fewer lame cows, fewer hock and knee injuries, and higher producing cows who stay in the herd longer. While there are many benefits to sand, there are also some challenges when it comes to manure handling and bedding management. In this episode, we discuss the benefits of sand and how to manage it in a freestall system.