The use of group housing systems with automated calf feeders are gaining in popularity in the United States. This is in stark contrast to the previous premise held that individual housing systems optimized calf health. Recent growth is based on several notable benefits cited for both producer and calf. These automated feeders allow farmers to receive more data on their calves while concurrently reducing labor costs. Another advantage to automated calf feeders is the ability to increase milk volume and number of feedings per day easily. Research regarding the advantage to feeding calves more and with more frequency, has provided mixed results. A portion of research trials suggest that calves allowed a higher volume of milk per day will have higher preweaning average daily gain, which correlates to higher milk yield in first lactation. Yet results from additional studies indicate that calves fed ad libitum milk have lowered rate of gain compared with calves fed a constant amount daily and that these consistently fed calves have higher feed efficiency, which could reduce calf-rearing costs. There is still other work that suggests many calves do not maximize their allotted daily milk, thus are able to optimize their milk utilization based on need. Growth and development of calves is also directly impacted by their health. Health in these group housed systems, research has identified, is a direct reflection of management techniques as is the case with individual housing systems. Finally, training to use calf feeders can require time for calf and producer. Calves should be worked with individually to get them using the feeders independently as quickly as possible. Producers need to give themselves time to adjust to this system of feeding calves and strategically pick management practices that work best for them and their calves. The ability to directly measure the impact of automated calf feeders on calf performance is often blurred by many producer related variables. Therefore, it is important to remember that with this system as with any calf rearing system, the results in calves is only going to be as good as the thoughtful management that went into them.