Few things in farming are simple, and lameness is one of the complexities that can be caused by many factors and also create a variety of new problems. In fact, the losses associated with lameness — less current and future milk production, reduced reproductive performance, and greater risk of future disease and culling — contribute more to the cost of the disease than the expenses of treating it, research suggests.
During a Cornell University virtual workshop on understanding lameness, Kathryn Barrett pointed to a University of Kentucky analysis of published research that found the expenditures of treatment and prevention of hoof problems contributed to less than half of the total cost. The losses outlined above rep- resented 70% to 90% of the costs the researchers calculated, which included $53 to $402 per cow for a case of digital dermatitis and $232 to $622 per cow for sole ulcers.
For example, lost milk production could represent anywhere from 8% to 39% of that total cost, the senior extension associate said. The study also found that a significant portion of the total cost stemmed from reduced reproductive impact due to, on average, seven days longer to first service, a 20% drop in conception rate, 1.2 more services per conception, and 30 more days open.
What do those numbers really mean? “This gives us an idea that effective prevention, identification, and treatment can go a long way in reducing these costs,” Barrett implored.
What we provide
Keeping cows from becoming lame has a lot to do with the facilities they live and work in. This begins with encouraging cows to get off their feet and allowing them to lay down for the desired 11 to 13 hours each day. Farms do that with appropriately sized stalls with plenty of clean, dry bedding, reminded Lindsay Ferlito later in the program.
“Whatever we can do to increase bedding in those stalls is better for lying time,” said the regional dairy
specialist. “We know from multiple studies that lying time is higher on deep beds. We also see lower lame- ness and leg injuries in deep beds.” While this is often said about sand, Ferlito noted that it doesn’t have to be sand as long as the bedding is deep, clean, and dry.
As for stall size, she advised against aggressive brisket boards or neck rails since they have been shown to raise the prevalence of lameness when cows spend more time perching in stalls. Stalls aren’t always an easy thing to change, Ferlito recognized, so it’s important to design them appropriately. You could consider creating more comfortable stalls by utilizing flexible dividers or building out more lunge space, she said.
When cows are on their feet, keep flooring as dry as possible and utilize grooving to improve footing. “Cows like rubber, but we don’t necessarily need it everywhere,” Ferlito continued. Rubber or additional grooving may be especially useful for slopes and turns to prevent slips.
She also noted that access to pasture, even if just during the dry period, has been shown to improve gait scores and reduce overall lame- ness. Though this might not be feasible everywhere, it illustrates that soft ground surfaces help, and that concept can be applied to box stalls or soft bedding.
What we do
Other factors of lameness encompass how the cow interacts with its environment. Heat stress reduces lying time and promotes bunching, both of which contribute to more lameness, Ferlito shared. Proper air exchange and cooling mechanisms at the stall level are critical.
A cow will spend most of its day eating, and Betsy Hicks, a regional dairy specialist, described that the feedbunk can exacerbate lameness if feed access is limited. At a bunk with a neck rail, Hicks said that a cow can exert 500 pounds of pressure on the rail when reaching for feed, and tissue injuries to the neck can happen after 250 pounds of force. However, Hicks explained, “The force is on her neck but also on her feet.” Regular feed pushups can avoid this problem.
Hoof health can be maintained with regular trimming and footbaths. Hicks recommended two maintenance trimmings per year (often post- peak milk and before dry off, she said) in addition to monitoring for any corrective trimming needed. Having a relationship with your trimmer is also helpful, she said. They can provide feedback on the issues they find, and records can be added to herd software to track problems.
For an effective footbath, Hicks’ recommendations included making sure it is long enough for each cow to get two dunks per foot and having a surface that’s easy for cows to walk on. Ensure the right amount of solution is being mixed, and evaluate if you’re running it at an effective frequency. Finally, consider how easy it is for employees to fill and clean. “If it’s not easy to manage, it’s probably not being done correctly,” Hicks said.
Both regional specialists encouraged monitoring lameness prevalence and type in the herd to determine potential areas of improvement. Changes don’t have to be huge to see a positive impact, Ferlito shared, and all types of lameness benefit from good prevention, early detection, and quick action and treatment to stay on top of the issue. “You cannot cull your way out of lameness,” added Hicks.
