Know How / Foot health

Advice on the prevention and treatment of lameness in beef and dairy cattle and sheep. Find out how to deal with foot health issues including spotting the symptoms of scald, footrot, CODD, digital dermatitis and foul and best practice on foot-trimming, foot-bathing and carrying out mobility scoring.

Advice and tips

FOOT HEALTH

Benefits of a mentored team approach to lameness control

Lameness is estimated to cost the dairy industry £250m/year through impaired fertility, reduced production, premature culls, and treatment costs. The average cost a day of lameness for all lame cows…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Lameness in beef cattle: Effect, causes and treatment

Cattle lameness is a significant welfare and economic problem facing the livestock industry. Most of the focus has been on lameness within the national dairy herd, where there is a…

FOOT HEALTH

Why it is important to optimise dairy cow lying times

Dairy cows’ lying behaviour is considered a sign of their wellbeing and comfort, with 12 hours a day often used as the benchmark. Yet lying times vary between individual cows…

DAIRY

Why regular foot-bathing strategies need to change

Routine foot-bathing should be part of a farm strategy for digital dermatitis, rather than viewed as the cure. Dr Laura Solano of Lactanet, Canada’s largest milk organisation, says dairy farmers…

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Case studies

DAIRY

How adviser's dairy foot health focus improved milk yields

Veterinary lameness expert Sara Pedersen is seeing real progress in improving the foot heath of the nation’s dairy herds, a problem that is estimated by the Royal Veterinary College to…

LIVESTOCK

How feeding maize silage has cut ration cost by £10 a ewe

Switching the winter housing ration from conserved grass to maize silage was an unplanned change at Wern Ddu near Newtown in Montgomeryshire. Ten years on, and its financial and health…

FOOT HEALTH

How a camera improves lameness detection for dairy farm

With 1,000 cows going through the parlour three times a day, staff at Highfields Farm in Audlem, Cheshire, wanted something to make detecting lame cows easier. On the advice of…

FOOT HEALTH

How a strict approach to mobility scoring can cut lameness

Fortnightly mobility scoring followed by prompt treatment of foot health issues have helped a Welsh dairy farm to cut its herd lameness levels to less than 10%. Russell Morgan and…

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Community

WORKSHOP SKILLS

FW Inventions Comp 2023: Jim Gould's dairy foot-bath doser

The winner of the simple category of the 2023 Farmers Weekly Inventions Competition is Jim Gould with his automatic dairy foot-bath doser. After years battling digital dermatitis across his 200-cow…

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Insights

DAIRY

How milk testing could help predict lameness in dairy cows

A study has revealed that sampling and testing milk for specific biomarkers could help farmers predict lameness in dairy cows long before the onset of visible symptoms. The presence of…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Why low-cost devices can be effective to detect lameness

Low-cost thermal imaging devices are as effective at detecting lameness in dairy cattle as expensive alternatives, a study led by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed. Infrared thermal imaging…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Why genetics can play bigger role in breeding out lameness

Good husbandry, environment and nutrition all play a part in the fight against dairy cow lameness. But new research has found genetics has a bigger role than was previously thought.…

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News

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Dairy mobility survey lays out lameness recommendations

Combining mobility scoring cameras with specialised staff roles could help tackle the lack of progress in dairy cow foot health. This is revealed in the survey results of attitudes to…

FOOT HEALTH

Lameness tech promises fast, accurate detection

Footbath manufacturer Hoofcount has launched a revolutionary lameness detection device that automatically identifies digital dermatitis (DD) and enables faster treatment of lesions. In the UK, 30% of cows have DD…

LIVESTOCK

Vets raise risk of twisted feet for heifers on sand

Farmers housing in-calf heifers on sand cubicles with concrete in front of the feed barrier are being advised to take steps to avoid problems with “reverse corkscrew” in the feet.…

FOOT HEALTH

Keptoprofen eases pain of digital dermatitis, trial shows

Trials of the drug ketoprofen in cattle suffering with digital dermatitis have shown it can be used as an effective painkiller, helping to maintain milk yields. The research work was…

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Video

FOOT HEALTH

Advice on how to vaccinate sheep against foot-rot

Vaccination to reduce foot-rot in sheep is just one part of a national five-point plan designed to lessen overall disease pressure from infectious lameness, by improving flock resilience to the…

LIVESTOCK

Hit Squad helps tackle lameness in Carmarthenshire

As a follow-up to Farmers Weekly's campaign, sheep lameness experts Ruth Clements of FAI Farms and vet Joseph Angell from Liverpool University formed the Stamp Out Lameness Hit Squad. They…

LIVESTOCK

Welsh sheep farm looks to Stamp Out Lameness

As a follow up to Farmers Weekly's campaign, a group of specialists teamed up to form the Stamp out Lameness hit squad and visited three farms to highlight key areas…

LIVESTOCK

Video: Detect lameness early with new automatic system

A new fully automated mobility alerting system could help dairy farmers tackle lameness. IceScore Mobility from IceRobotics, automatically and continuously monitors dairy cows and promptly alerts the farmer when an…

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