Study outline

Between February 2003 and March 2004 we made four visits to 50 farms in England and Wales.  At each of these visits we scored the locomotion of all cattle.   We asked farmers about the general management of their herd and buildings, and we measured and recorded those factors that we thought might influence the level of lameness in the herd, e.g. cubicle design and dimensions, bedding use, presence of automatic scrapers, frequency of foot bathing etc. In the second phase of the project, forty-two farms took part in an intervention study.  Between February 2005 and February 2006 we monitored the effects of implementing recommendations aimed at reducing lameness on half these farms, and used the other half of the farms as controls.

We used a locomotion scoring technique based on the presence or absence of an arched back posture when standing and walking. We feel that locomotion scoring is beneficial for assessing the amount of lameness in the whole herd on any one day and could be used a part of a farmer's health plan. 

• Score 1: Normal locomotion
• Score 2: Abnormal locomotion: claws should be checked and visible lesions treated as soon as possible
• Score 3: Lame: these cows should be treated immediately

Farmers also recorded the lesions (sole ulcers etc) they found when they treated lame cows during the study.  After excluding any records of lesions that were incomplete, we calculated the amount of lesions per 100 cows per farm.

Summary of locomotion scores and rates of claw lesions

Approximately 31% cattle were locomotion score 1, 58% score 2 and 11% score 3 at each visit. This means that on average approximately 10% cattle were definitely lame at the visits. Only 16% of these cows had been treated for lameness by the next visit.

The rate of sole ulcers ranged from 0 to 28.5 cases per 100 cows per year by farm, white line disease ranged from 0 to 30.7 and the rate of digital dermatitis ranged from 0 to 69.5.

The level of each lesion varied considerably between farms and highlights that it is important to know which lesions you have on your farm so that you can target changes in management to reduce these causes of lameness.

Effect of season on locomotion scores and rates of claw lesions

The average locomotion scores were lower, that is locomotion was better, when cattle were at pasture (Graph 1).

The rate of sole ulcers and digital dermatitis were also lower during the summer months (Graph 2). This suggests that the housed environment makes the risk of these causes of lameness higher.

Graph 2: Patterns of lesions by calendar month

Effect of claw lesions on milk yield

Thirty farmers were milk recording with NMR.  For these farms we used data collected during milk recording to investigate the impact of lameness on milk yield.

Cattle which had sole ulcer produced approximately 600kg less milk over a 305 day lactation than cattle that were not lame.  Cattle with white line disease produced approximately 400kg less milk over a 305 day lactation than cattle that were not lame. 

These were cattle that were treated for these lesions. Yet despite treatment, these cattle did not produce as much milk as if they had not been affected. We really need to prevent the occurrence of the lesions.

Cattle with digital dermatitis produce approximately 1kg milk more per day after treatment.

Risk factors for poor locomotion

In this study we did not find a significant difference between the locomotion of cows housed in straw yards and those housed in cubicle yards.  This may be because only 5 of the 49 farms included in the analysis had straw yards. We compared average farm locomotion scores between farms to identify which managements were associated with poor locomotion. A high score indicates that more cows had poor locomotion (score 2 or 3). A herd can have a high score either because lots of cows become lame or because those that are lame are not treated promptly.

Table 1: Summary of the factors measured on farms with cubicle housing which were associated with poor locomotion

Table 2: Summary of factors measured on farms with cubicle housing which were associated with increases in sole ulcer, white line disease or digital dermatitis taking. The model was adjusted for the age and stage of lactation of each animal so the following factors are risks for increase lesions regardless of the parity or day in milk.

UP indicates increased rates of lesions associated with a given factor
DOWN indicates decreased rates of lesions associated with a given factor

We do not have all the answers to prevent lame cows, but highlight some ideas below that we hope might help you on your farm.

Cubicles with rubber mats or mattresses thinly covered with sawdust were a risk for poor locomotion (Table 1).  Mats are part of the cubicle base and should still be well bedded.  Sparse bedding is not really bedding at all and is not comfortable and cows are reluctant to lie down. If you watch your cattle and they take a long time to lie down or make several attempts to lie down before they succeed, this suggests that your cubicles are not comfortable. You can test your bedding by dropping to you knees from a standing position.  If this hurts you then this would almost certainly be too hard for your cows to lie comfortably.  If you think twice about dropping to you knees then so will your cows!  The resulting increase in time spent standing may lead to sole ulcers. Further evidence for this is that there was an increased risk for sole ulcers associated with cattle housed on sparse bedding for over 3 months (Table 2). This may be because sawdust forms an abrasive layer which, when used sparingly, results in the skin over the joints of cows rubbing through the sawdust onto the hard bed base below.  The abrasiveness of the sparse bedded surface may also damage hocks and knees of cattle causing further reluctance to lie down.  Check whether your cows have swollen hocks.

Automatic scrapers were also associated with poor locomotion (Table 1). This may be because automatic scrapers were correlated with sawdust on mats, that is on farms where automatic scrapers were in use sawdust bedding was also being used.  Automatic scrapers, however, cause disruptions in the house by forcing cows to move and re-order as they stand in the passage.

This disruption could be minimised by avoiding running scrapers during the busiest times e.g. when cows have just been fed or when waiting in passage during milking.

The transition of cows into the milking herd needs further investigation.  The increase in poor locomotion score associated with moving cows from straw yarded dry cow accommodation into cubicles after calving suggests that cows do not adjust well to such changes (Table 1).  Reduced rates of sole ulcer were observed where all cows calved outdoors (Table 2).  This would imply that remaining at grass (or possibly onto any soft surface) during the early lactation period helps to offset the other stresses to a dairy cow at this time e.g. increase standing during milking and social integration into a new cow group. It has certainly been suggested that fresh calvers should be kept on soft bedding and/or ‘luxury housing’ until well past peak lactation and our study indicates that this may be a good idea.

Wider passage ways allow better cow flow which helps the integration of new animals to the group and reduces stocking density therefore reducing the contact cows have with slurry in the passages. 

The floor surfaces which your cows walk on are also important.  In the cubicle house and yards, grooved concrete floors were associated with higher rates of sole ulcer, white line disease and digital dermatitis compared with non-grooved concrete floors. Although the reason for this is not obvious, on a number of farms we visited with grooved floors we observed cows slipping.  It may be that these floors were grooved because they were slippery and that the grooving has not reduced the slipperiness sufficiently.  If these grooved floors are indeed more slippery than other floor types then the sudden impact on the claw when a cow slips or stumbles could result in bruising and possibly increase the chance of sole ulcer or white line lesions.  Walking on concrete or tarmac tracks or roadways was also associated with increased rates of the 3 main lesions compared with dirt/stony tracks suggesting that the wear to the horn caused by walking on hard surfaces is a greater risk than any foreign objects which may be present on a dirt track. We do not however, recommend stony tracks since there is plenty of evidence that cattle prefer to walk on smooth but giving surfaces such as rubber or grass or dry mud tracks.

Routine trimming of all cows’ claws once or more each lactation by a farmer or professional claw trimmer was associated with higher levels of poor locomotion over the year. This may be because individual lame cows are left untreated until a planned foot trimming session. other studies have suggested that digital dermatitis may be spread between cows during routine trimming, Further work is required to determine if these explanations are correct.

However, we strongly advise that these results do NOT mean that you should stop routine trimming, but regardless of whether preventive trimming is being carried out or not prompt treatment of lame cows is necessary.  In addition to the immediate treatment of lame cows, foot trimming equipment must be cleaned between cows and sound cows feet must not be over trimmed.

Feeding maize silage was a risk for poor locomotion.  In other studies feeding maize silage has been associated with rumen acidosis which causes disruption to horn growth.  It has also been associated with an increase in laminitis.  Herds that feed maize silage are likely to be the higher yielding herds, and there is considerable evidence that higher yields are associated with more lameness. It is unclear what recommendations can be made from this result at the moment.

Summary of interventions

During the lameness advisory visits in the second part of the project, a total of  271 recommendations were made to 24 farmers (ie half of the group), usually 8 – 12 per farm. Of these, 67 (25%) were implemented.  Understandably most of the recommendations adopted were those that incurred little or no cost and were often a one off change.  Common recommendations which were most frequently implemented were

• reducing the time standing during milking (83%)
• dietary changes (75%)
• exposing heifers to concrete before calving (75%)
• using foot blocks when treating lame cows (67%)
• reducing pooling of slurry (60%)
• changing footbaths with ridged bottoms for ones with a flat base (50%)
• (re)grooving slippery concrete (40%)
• and adding biotin to the ration to prevent white line disease at 20mg/cow/day (35%).

Preliminary results suggest that even small changes may have been of benefit, in particular for the reduction of sole ulcer and overall fewer cows with locomotion score 3. However, one year was a short time frame to investigate the effect of changes on lameness caused by lesions which take up to 3 months to develop at the surface of the claw.

We are very grateful for the help of all the farmers involved and we hope that some of the above may be of interest. We are developing guidance notes for managing lameness as part of the EU project. This will be produced as an interactive DVD and will be available later in 2007.

Funded by the Fifth European Community Framework Programme
(OLRT-2001-00969)