Perttu, Rielle2019-12-112019-12-112019-07https://hdl.handle.net/11299/208950University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. July 2019. Major: Animal Sciences. Advisor: Marcia Endres. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 132 pages.The objective of the research reported in this thesis was to understand acceptance or preference of dairy calf housing options among the general public, adult and youth. Participants 18 years of age or greater (n = 1,310) and 5 – 17 years of age (n = 463) completed a survey at the Minnesota State Fair (St. Paul, MN, USA) in summer 2018. The survey presented three images of calf housing options (individual, pair, or group) and asked participants to indicate their acceptance of the housing option (adults) or select their preferred option (youth). Descriptive statistics of demographic data were obtained using the SURVEYFREQ Procedure of SAS (9.4). Rao-Scott Chi-Square test (PROC SURVEYFREQ, SAS 9.4) was used to investigate relationships between demographics and housing acceptance or preference, respectively. Content analysis was used for qualitative analysis with the goal of identifying perceptions, concerns, and values with respect to dairy calf welfare and reasoning underlying dairy calf house acceptance or preference. The median age range of adult participants was 45 – 54 years, 64.9% were female, 81.5% urban residents, 41.3% completed a Bachelor’s degree, 94.0% owned a pet, 78.5% did not have a loved one who worked in the dairy industry, 80.7% did they have prior experience handling agricultural animals, and 62.9% had visited a farm in the past. For youth, the median age of participants was 11 yrs and 60.8% were female, 82.3% were urban residents, 89.6% owned a pet, and 62.6% did not have prior experience handling agricultural animals but 83.2% had visited a farm in the past. Overall, all participants were most accepting of the group housing option. For the adults, males, rural residents, and individuals with previous livestock handling experience were more accepting of the individual housing option. Group housing was most accepted due to the calves’ ability to socialize with other calves and space allowance. For youth, housing preference was not associated with age, gender, pet ownership, or prior visits to a farm. However, rural youth more frequently preferred individual housing compared to urban youth (13.6 ± 4.5% SE vs. 5.1 ± 1.3% SE, respectively) and urban youth more frequently preferred pair housing compared to rural youth (15.3 ± 2.2% SE vs. 6.8 ± 3.3% SE, respectively). Youth that preferred group housing most commonly referenced reasons of socialization and space allowance. These findings suggest that the public is more accepting of group housed dairy calves compared to individual or pair housed systems.enThesis or Dissertation