Frank Pahl is delighted at the benefits of keeping his calves outside all year round on his farm. The calves are protected by a monopitch roof and grow up first in individual hutches and later in two MultiMax hutches and a Holm & Laue Igloo. This system has changed his calf rearing significantly: healthy animals, excellent weight gains, enhanced performance in the cow shed later on and more efficient working hours. “This version of a calf barn works wonderfully for me and, in addition, was a much smaller financial outlay than all the alternatives,” says Frank.

A new additional barn was built on Pahl Farm in 2016 in order to increase capacity. However, more cows also mean more calves and it quickly became a bit cramped in the old indoor calf pen. While the old calf rearing system was just about satisfactory, the incidence of disease was steadily increasing and Frank knew that he would soon have to come up with something new.

After careful consideration and research, Frank decided on an outdoor system from Holm & Laue for his calf rearing. "I did a lot of research and looked at different types of calf pens. Actually, it was supposed to be a Holstein calf barn. But then I went to a barn of this kind and noticed that the calves were coughing. And I thought to myself, that's not the answer. I'm not going to build a new barn and then have my calves start coughing. So I kept on looking," Frank says.

The new husbandry system was set up at Pahl Farm in 2018. Individual hutches, two MultiMax hutches and an Igloo were erected on concrete floors and under a monopitch roof. Frank's calves spend their first weeks of life in the individual hutches and are provided with ad libitum whole milk feed. Later, he stops ad-libitum feeding and steadily weans the calves in the MultiMax hutches. “It all works out very well. A Holm & Laue MilkTaxi was also added to the new calf barn. The Taxi's functions ensure that adapted weaning is child's play,” says Frank.