March 10, 2011

UK dairy industry attempts to overcome lameness battle

Weak knowledge transfer has been identified as the key reason for lack of improvement and the UK dairy industry is trying very hard to defeat lameness in cows.

Veterinary surgeon, Matt Dobbs, of the UK-wide farm specialist practice, Westpoint Vets, said that although the industry was making progress, it was slow.

"One in three dairy cows is still lame. I am hoping the problem is not getting worse, but I believe every farm should set an achievable target of less than 20% of the herd with a mobility score two or three, at one time," said Dobbs.

He attributed weak knowledge transfer as the key reason for the lack of improvement.

"Researchers have no time or inclination to disseminate their findings to the wider community."

"I would like to see more requirements for this information to be dispersed at least part-way down the chain; be it to vets, consultants or foot trimmers so that they can pass the information to farmers."

Better knowledge transfer has been one of the drivers for improved lameness incidence in the US, where farmers have been able to adopt research solutions in cow comfort and flow. Consequently total lameness is much lower than in the UK.

Dobbs recognised that much was being done by Dairy Co and the industry to resolve the problem, but there was still room for improvement from the whole industry.