Shropshire Farming Talk: Be proactive to prevent cattle lameness

After a long and productive lactation, a cow needs to be able to restore its nutrient reserves.

Much like a professional footballer, athlete or sportsperson, the modern dairy cow performs at a high level – their body becomes exhausted and needs time to rest and repair.

Just before calving, cows may be moved to the farm for close monitoring and then perhaps another shed when calving starts.

This movement can cause stress on the animal, often making them less relaxed and standing for longer periods of time.

This increases pressure on their feet. Immediately before calving a hormone called relaxin is secreted into the cow’s body to loosen the muscles and ligaments to aid in the calving process.

This hormone however also loosens the ligaments in the rear legs and feet, allowing more movement in the pedal bone inside of the cow’s foot.

This can result in tilting of that bone in the foot – again affecting locomotion.

Cow comfort is absolutely key and time must be taken to consider bedding, ease of movement around housing sheds, accessibility of water, air quality and neck rail heights.

Clean and dry conditions must be a priority as moisture breeds bacteria, creating the ideal environment for the spread of digital dermatitis.

A regular foot trimming programme is one of the most effective methods for managing and preventing lameness at housing.

When done correctly and routinely, foot trimming can relive bruised areas, highlight areas of weakness or infection and allow time to repair serious foot health issues. Without monitoring your herd’s foot health, you will be unable to take precautionary action.

When trimming, there are two simple mistakes that need to be avoided – over trimming and under trimming.

Under-trimming is most commonly observed when trimmers treat lame cows with lesions during curative trimming.

The objective might be to remove loose horn and to transfer weight from the affected claw to the unaffected claw – often with the support of a foot block.

The lack of weight transfer from the affected claw to the unaffected claw, and leaving loose horn attached on and around a lesion, will delay healing of ulcers and white-line abscesses.

by Nick Challenor is the owner of ND Challenor Professional Livestock Services.