12 August 2024
Reducing Lameness - Monitor
19 April 2023
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
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