Reducing Lameness - Monitor

Opportunities for conversations around Reducing Lameness:

• NZ and Australian studies found dairy farmers were typically identifying 25% of clinically lame cows in the herd. This means that on any given day 75% of clinically lame cows are undiagnosed and untreated.^{2 3}
• Many farmers only record lame cows treated with antibiotics. All case of lame cows should be recorded, irrespective of treatments.
• Financial impact of lameness in NZ is conservatively estimated at $250 per case or $15,000 per year (assuming herd size of 420 cows with lameness incidence of 14%).¹
• Access your farmer clients’ Fonterra Insights Report to benchmark and identify opportunities to help improve dairy herd health and wellbeing.

• Most NZ lameness cases are due to claw horn lesions, usually white line or sole disease. 
• Lift the hoof of each lame cow to diagnose the likely cause. In New Zealand 80% of lameness is due to inflammatory changes rather than bacterial infection. The damage to the soft tissue (corium) slowly grows down with lesions visible several months later. 
• Identify lame cows promptly – could vets or technicians help with this?

AgriHealth Resources include:

Cow Hoof Model

Show farmers the differences between a healthy hoof and a hoof with damage to the
corium. Explain the long-term impacts of lameness, and how to keep cows in the
milking herd for longer.

On-farm poster for dairy farmers

This poster for farmers is designed to minimise, monitor and manage dairy cow lameness. Download here

Technical Bulletin N7 - Lameness management in NZ cows

Download here

AgriHealth Website

https://agrihealth.co.nz/products/lameness-in-cattle  

Contact your AgriHealth representative to access additional training and resources for reducing lameness.

Note DairyNZ also has some useful resources including:

• Lameness scoring system to identify lame cows
• Healthy Hoof app
• lameness cost calculator

_{1Dairy NZ. Preventing and managing lameness guide https://www.dairynz.co.nz/anim...2017}

_{2Fabian J, Laven R. A, Whay H R. The prevalence of lameness on New Zealand dairy farms: a comparison of farmer estimate and locomotion scoring The Vet Journal; 201(1):318, 2014}

_{3Beggs, D., E. Jongman, P. Hemsworth, and A. Fisher. 2019. Lame cows on Australian dairy farms: A comparison of farmer-identified lameness and formal lameness scoring, and the position of lame cows within the milking order. Journal of dairy science 102(2): 1522-1529}

_{4Thomas, H.J., et al. 2015. Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomised controlled trail. Journal of Dairy Science 98(7):4477-4486}