A fourteen-month study was conducted with the primary objective to quantify the environment in four similar central New York State plastic film covered facilities (greenhouses) used to house preweaned and recently weaned dairy calves. A secondary objective was to attempt to assess the effects of the environment on calf growth, health, and rearing costs and some of the health data is presented herein. Environmental assessment was accomplished by contrasting inside and outside black globe temperature, black globe-humidity index, humidity, and dry-bulb temperature. Data was collected for each monitored parameter using small, programmable, self-contained dataloggers.

Calf housing; Alternative animal housing; Heat stress; Solar heating; Datalogger

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