Treat lame cows early and slash recurrent rates

Early detection and treatment of lame cows can dramatically slash recurrent lameness in dairy herds, leading to reduced costs and improved productivity. Olivia Cooper reports

Around a quarter of the national dairy herd is likely to be lame at any one time, costing an average of £150 a cow through vet bills and poor productivity. But a new study has shown early detection and treatment is the key to resolving this massive drain on the industry.

Over the past three years, the Dartington Cattle Breeding Trust and Bristol University have been working with four different dairy herds in the South West, comparing farmers’ conventional treatment of lame cows to more rapid vet response. The results were truly amazing.

In total, more than 800 cows were involved in the study, with the farms visited every two weeks during the housed period to locomotion score the cows, explains Margit Groenevelt, a vet at Bristol University.

Every farm was given a treatment and a control group, and any chronic or recurrently lame cows were excluded. Any cow that was sound for two consecutive scores and then became lame was put into one or other of the groups.

The trial was blind, so the farmers did not know when or which cows were allocated to the control group – they were simply left to score them and treat them as they normally would.

However, Miss Groenevelt treated all the cows in her group immediately with a foot-trim, and oxytetracycline spray or antibiotics as required. “In my group of 171 treated cows, 41% had bruising, 32% had digital dermatitis and 6% had a sole ulcer; it takes a while for the bruising to develop into an ulcer.”

Of the 256 cows in the control group, only 20 were detected and treated, with an average of five weeks’ delay before treatment. “About 14% had sole ulcers, 14% had white line lesions and ulceration, and 20% had foul in the foot, which was interesting as none of the cows in the treatment group had foot-rot as they were detected more promptly.”

Two weeks after treatment almost 80% of the treated cows were sound – but 65% of the control group were also sound. “Cows with bruised feet deal with it by lying down more and favouring the lame foot,” says Miss Groenevelt. “A proportion of them therefore tend to get better in the short term, at least.”

Long-term effects

However, the interesting aspect of the trial came 10-12 weeks later. “Half of the treated group were still sound, but only 30% of the control group were. By 18 weeks that had fallen to just 10%, while the treated group remained at about 50%,” she adds. “This data gives us very useful information about the long-term benefits for early treated cows.”

Treating cows early not only saves in long-term vet costs, it will also boost overall productivity, says Miss Groenevelt. “It takes me 10 minutes to trim two hind feet to ease bruising, without any pain to the animal. But when left to develop into an ulcer that would take at least 15 minutes a foot to trim it properly without causing pain – then there’d been another 10 minutes to block it and five to administer antibiotics, so there are considerable time savings.”

Knock-on effects of lameness

Lameness can impact on fertility and productivity, and is likely to increase the cull rate, so prevention is clearly more preferable than cure, she adds. “You need to look at cubicle comfort, cow tracks, standing times, and collecting yard design to minimise white line lesions from turning and twisting. Cow flow in the sheds is also important – make sure there are no dead ends – and manage slurry effectively to minimise digital dermatitis. You shouldn’t just be focusing on chronically lame cows; keeping sound cows sound is just as vital.”

Routine locomotion scoring and foot-trimming is also important, says Miss Groenevelt. “Heifers are very important and you should trim cows 80-100 days into their lactation, plus at drying off. If an animal has a 480-day calving index then that will be too long between early lactation and drying off, so you’ll need an extra trim. It doesn’t always have to be a full trim – it’s just about balancing the foot.”

Herdsmen who spend a lot of time with their cows often find excuses for animals that are lame, so it is useful to get a fresh pair of eyes to help with locomotion scoring, she adds. “Get your wife or someone who doesn’t see the cows regularly to score them every two weeks, and use the DairyCo mobility scoring sheet to help with record keeping.”

CASE STUDY – Ben Letts, Somerset

Ben Letts milks 160 Holsteins at Sperrings Farm, Clapton-in-Gordano, Somerset, and has made some dramatic changes since taking part in the study. “We used to locomotion score a bit, but not as much as we should have done,” he says. “We trimmed the cows’ feet at drying off and whenever they were lame, but we still had plenty of lame cows.

“It was costing us a lot of money with fertility problems and heifers just not doing as well as they should,” he adds. “I found it so depressing when we had lovely heifers coming into the herd that were ruined by poor feet.”

The cows calve almost year-round, and are housed over the winter, with some high yielders kept inside over the summer. “We were reasonably good at identifying lame cows, but perhaps a little slow to pick up a foot and treat it,” says Mr Letts. “We had quite a few problems with digital dermatitis and sole ulcers.”

Before the study, about 42% of the herd was lame at any one time, affected by a combination of digital dermatitis, sole ulcers and white line lesions.

But having seen the impact that early detection and treatment had on the herd, Mr Letts has made some simple, but very effective, changes. “My son, Henry, has done a foot-trimming course and is now on the farm full-time, which has freed up a bit more time for all of us,” he says. “He now trims all the cows 50 days after calving, and this winter we’ve only had one heifer with a sole ulcer, and she happened to miss that 50-day trim.”

Mr Letts and Henry now mobility score the cows together every two to three weeks, and have found it relatively simple to implement the changes. “When you set your mind to it, it’s easy to do. As a family farm it has to earn its keep – and by reducing lameness problems we must be saving a lot of money.”

He also footbathes the cows at least five, and sometimes seven, times a week – and the combination is really working. “I’m amazed by how much lameness we can prevent,” he says. “We still have the odd old cow that has some problems, but this winter we’ve had no fresh chronically lame cows – lameness is a fraction of what it was before.”

Before the changes, Mr Letts had a lot of problems with infected sole ulcers and white line lesions, says Miss Groenevelt. “They were incredibly difficult to treat – but we’re not getting any infections any longer. Over the past nine months, lameness levels have dropped to about 32% and will continue to decline as older, chronically lame cows leave the herd and younger ones come in and hopefully remain sound.”

More on this topic 

Watch a how-to video guide to foot trimming and also mobility scoring cows at fwi.co.uk/howtovideos