Lameness is an issue that has to be dealt with on every dairy farm. Not only does it lead to reduced production, it is also an animal welfare concern.
Lameness issues can occur at any stage of year, but the housing period can be considered high risk.
There are a number of factors that can increase the potential risk within a shed or when cows are housed.
Lameness
The quality of winter accommodation has an impact on hoof health and thus issues with lameness on farms.
There are a number of key areas to focus on:
- Lying time;
- Cubicle comfort;
- Feed space;
- Underfoot cleanliness.
When cows are in an optimal housed environment, they should be lying down or eating about 70% of the time.
Too much time standing on concrete will adversely impact hoof health. Ideally, a cow should spend at least 12 hours/day lying down.
To maximise lying time for all cows and avoid bullying, the number of comfortable cubicles should exceed the number of cows in the shed by at least 5%.
So if there are 100 cows in the shed, there should be at least 105 cubicles.
Too many cows perching or standing in cubicles is a sign of poor cubicle design or lack of comfort.
Small changes like repositioning the neck rail and fitting a brisket board can often improve cubicle use and lying time.
Another thing that can be easily overlooked in many sheds is feed space. Inadequate space at the feed barrier will mean more competition when feed is being put out or pushed up.
Stronger, dominant cows will feed first while weaker subordinate cows wait.
Competition at the barrier will also impact hoof health due to the shearing forces applied when cows are pushing.
It is advised to have at least 60cm of feed space/milking cow and 80cm/dry cow.
Two rows of cubicles with a parallel feed barrier offer an optimum in terms of feed space and cubicle access.
Hygiene
Another area that should be focussed on during the housed period is ensuring that cows are not standing in excessive manure or slurry.
If cows have to stand in manure, incidences of infectious lameness like digital dermatitis and slurry heel are likely to increase.
Having adequate space, adequate ventilation and ensuring that scrapers are running frequently to prevent manure build-up will ensure cows are standing on a clean surface.
Scrapers not running often enough can result in cows being foot-bathed in the manure wave as they step over the scraper.
Prevention
Lameness cases are going to happen, so the focus should be on reducing the number of cases to as few as possible.
Although some changes may take time and investment, some are also quite easy to fix and won’t cost anything significant.
A number of small changes could have a significant impact on the hoof health of your cows, such as ensuring that the scrapers are running and cows aren’t standing in manure/slurry or avoiding over-stocking the cubicle shed.