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northeastern Ohio | My wife started raising calves in in hutches in 1999. Prior to that, we were raising ours in the old tie stalls that were converted to calf pens. Calf mortality was high, cleaning pens was done with a pitch fork, and the calves that survived seemed to have respiratory/health issues for the rest of their lives. Don't want to go back to that.
After moving to hutches and pasteurized milk we have very healthy calves and very low mortality.
But hutches are labor intensive. Part of our problem is that we have 5 different brands of hutches. Some are tether, some fenced. Some have doors on the right, some on the left and some have rear doors. I want to go with one style/brand.
The main problem I have with many of the huts is the grain and water are side by side inside the hut. Water gets in the grain and grain gets in the water. Water spills into the bedding. Buckets get knocked out of the holder and have to go inside to retrieve them.
Does anyone have experience with the Calf-Tel Elite fence system (pics below)? Do you like it? How is it holding up? Did you pour a pad or are you on gravel? Do you have the hood that covers the grain and water? https://calftel.com/product/calf-fences/elite-calf-fence/
Or if you have a better system, post a pic or tell me about it.
 (Elite-Single-Fence (full).png)
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 Elite-Single-Fence (full).png (76KB - 407 downloads)
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Calf hutches: is there a perfect one out there?
