Pinpointing the risk factors causing lameness is crucial in terms of reducing incidents of lameness within your herd. Given that every farm is different with varying management strategies, there is sadly no one fix for all.
Stand back and take plenty of time to watch and study your cow’s behaviour during your farm’s daily routine. Your cows will actually tell you everything you need to know!
Assessing lameness risk factors and understanding the implications of these is a huge subject. We normally start a lameness assessment by looking at standing times. Most of the high-risk factors involved with causing non-infectious lameness lesions like sole bruising, sole ulcers and white line disease are what we term “forces on feet”.
Standing Time
First carry out a comfort score (CCI) if the cows are housed in cubicles. Pick the quietest time of day when most cows are likely to be resting. Count the number of animals lying down, then count the number that are in contact with a bed/cubicle (Stood half in or stood alongside looking to lie down). What is the proportion of cows lying down vs those standing in contact with a cubicle. Target 85% ideally lying down.
Assess for hock/knee swelling/bruising, as well as watching how quickly cows lie down when they enter a cubicle. Hock/knee swellings can arise from the pressure of lying down and getting up when the beds are too hard. Cows will also take much longer to lie down and spend less time lying, when either cubicles are restrictive (too small) or beds are hard. Watching the way your animals behave around their beds will indicate how comfortable and relaxed they are.
* Diagram of ideal cubicle dimensions
Other important areas to assess regarding standing times
- Milking routine
How long are we making some of the herd wait to enter the milking parlour or robot before returning to their beds? - Feed area
Check length of feed face/barrier, and size of passageways. Are your cows queuing up waiting to feed? Do they have enough space to eat and move freely. Target feed space per cow 0.5-0.6m. - Drinking troughs
Is there enough access to clean water at those crucial times – straight after milking and feeding. Are you making the cows stand and wait to drink? - Loafing area and passageways. Are they wide enough to allow normal behaviour and cow flow, without bullying?
During any lameness risk assessment, we also take time to analyse the foot trimming data and records for your herd/farm to determine the main categories of lameness lesions before making recommendations.
Some other environmental risks associated with “forces on feet”
- Floor surfaces:- slippery, broken rough concrete, stones
- Slatted floors
- Automatic slurry scraping systems
- Sharp turns – parlour exit and entry points etc
- Foot bath design and area
- Walking long distances during the grazing period
- Tracks – surface material
- Heat stress during the summer months. This may cause animals to stand for long periods of time
Stockmanship Risks
- Rushing animals – Poor cow flow
- Overuse of Backing gate
- Incorrect hoof trimming
- Slow lameness detection and treatment!
- If you would like to know more or receive help with identifying key lameness issues, and making changes to reduce lameness on your farm, please don’t hesitate to contact the office and ask for one of our suitably qualified techs to help.
Written by: Dave Frechnall, Vet Tech Manager
