Stable social contacts are essential for dairy calve’s development. In most conventional dairy farms, calves are separated from their dams at birth and spend the first eight weeks of life in partial isolation in individual housing (IH). However, limited contact with conspecifics can impair the formation of social bonds, whereas pair or group housing has been shown to improve social skills, adaptation, weight gains and overall welfare. The aim of this study was to determine how the (in)stability of the social environment in individual hutches (i.e., changes in neighbouring calves) affects subsequent social behaviour and weight gain. We hypothesise that neighbour relations and the stability of the social environment in IH will influence later social preferences as well as growth performance. Calves housed in IH will be monitored for neighbour identity, relocations, weight gains and later social behaviour after grouping through direct observations and in adulthood in the dairy barn using the positioning system TrackLab.