British manufacturer Quill Productions won the RABDF Livestock and Machinery Equipment Awards at this year’s Livestock Event 2014 with its well-thought-out and cheap-to-use hoof spray system.

Digital dermatitis is becoming a huge problem on UK dairy farms. Some of that is to do with increasing resistance to the chemicals used in foot-baths, but the other problem is simply that many farmers are not replacing the liquid in foot-baths as often as they should.

See also: New hoof gel helps tackle digital dermatitis

Quill’s system effectively does away with the need for a foot-bath altogether. Instead, the cowman simply gives a quick, targeted squirt of disinfectant to the cow’s hoof from a lever-operated spraygun. Each squirt takes about two seconds to do and there’s no need for the cow to lift its hoof at all.

Pumping is provided by an Ambic air-pump and the system is suitable for all milking parlours other than robotic ones.

Cost of the units is £552 for a dragline system and £536 for a coil system. Cost of the spray liquid works out at 20p/month but there’s no more need for chemicals in foot-baths.

Some 15 systems are currently being used and the company is confident enough in its equipment to predict that 25% of UK farms will be using it in a year’s time.

See also: All of the news and photos from the Livestock 2014