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 lameness, carried out by Stride, an initiative set up to improve dairy cow mobility in the UK.

Vet and chairman of the Stride technical board, Matt Dobbs, said the results confirmed an attitude of acceptance about lameness on farm.

See also: How to tackle chronic dairy cow lameness and mobility

While substantial progress has been made in tackling mastitis, he said there is a degree of resignation among dairy farmers about poor mobility and lameness.

This is despite the incidence rate remaining at 30% and each lameness case costing £330 a cow, according to the AHDB.

Using financial incentives in the milk cheque to change behaviour could simply result in under-reporting of lameness cases, said Matt. This is why Stride thinks the whole industry needs to work together.

Advisers and professionals have a responsibility to take the initiative to help farms improve mobility and cow health.

“Compromised foot health and reduced mobility have stubbornly remained a cause of reduced productivity, increased costs and higher rates of involuntary culling in dairy herds,” he said.

“It’s a challenging, multifactorial disease to get on top of, yet some farmers can get lameness rates in single figures, while others are at 60%.”

Investment

As the survey revealed that 90% of farms now have a foot-bath, and 92% a foot-trimming crush, Matt said further spend on infrastructure is necessary, but needs critical appraisal.

“Farmers need to make medium- and long-term investment.

“Everyone has done the easy bits – the crush and foot-bath – the difficult thing is investing for the next three to five years, as it won’t get an instant return,” he explained.

Matt said that it was important to choose the right technology (such as automated mobility scoring) and future-proof it.

“But it is important to work out which technology to buy, so that the return on investment can be realised. Benchmarking herd performance will confirm this,” he added.

Some 70% of survey respondents use a foot-trimmer, and 37% have a mobility scorer, reflecting a “growing team approach” to farm mobility, particularly in larger herds.

However, a key finding was the lack of clarity on farms about who was responsible for foot health.

The solution from Stride is to have one person in the team who has the appropriate support and training to lead a foot-care programme.

Full survey results, plus a programme of on-farm events, can be found on the Stride website.