Know How / Foot health

Advice on the prevention and treatment of lameness in beef and dairy cattle and sheep. Find out how to deal with foot health issues including spotting the symptoms of scald, footrot, CODD, digital dermatitis and foul and best practice on foot-trimming, foot-bathing and carrying out mobility scoring.

Advice and tips

FOOT HEALTH

Why it is important to optimise dairy cow lying times

Dairy cows’ lying behaviour is considered a sign of their wellbeing and comfort, with 12 hours a day often used as the benchmark. Yet lying times vary between individual cows…

DAIRY

Why regular foot-bathing strategies need to change

Routine foot-bathing should be part of a farm strategy for digital dermatitis, rather than viewed as the cure. Dr Laura Solano of Lactanet, Canada’s largest milk organisation, says dairy farmers…

DAIRY

Ways to reduce digital dermatitis ahead of winter

Increased slurry exposure at winter housing always comes with raised risk of digital dermatitis (DD), so now is an ideal time to plan ahead and think of preventative strategies. See…

DAIRY

Why farmers are failing to spot lameness in dairy herds

Mobility scoring is essential to identify lameness early within your dairy herd yet about 30% of dairy cows in the UK score 2 and 3 for lameness, data from UK…

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Case studies

LIVESTOCK

How feeding maize silage has cut ration cost by £10 a ewe

Switching the winter housing ration from conserved grass to maize silage was an unplanned change at Wern Ddu near Newtown in Montgomeryshire. Ten years on, and its financial and health…

FOOT HEALTH

How a camera improves lameness detection for dairy farm

With 1,000 cows going through the parlour three times a day, staff at Highfields Farm in Audlem, Cheshire, wanted something to make detecting lame cows easier. On the advice of…

FOOT HEALTH

How a strict approach to mobility scoring can cut lameness

Fortnightly mobility scoring followed by prompt treatment of foot health issues have helped a Welsh dairy farm to cut its herd lameness levels to less than 10%. Russell Morgan and…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

How farmer has reduced lameness to 2% in open flock

The Mouland family have reduced lameness from 10% to 2% and cut antibiotic use by 30% by addressing the challenge of operating an open flock proactively. Michael, Jo and their…

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Community

WORKSHOP SKILLS

FW Inventions Comp 2023: Jim Gould's dairy foot-bath doser

The winner of the simple category of the 2023 Farmers Weekly Inventions Competition is Jim Gould with his automatic dairy foot-bath doser. After years battling digital dermatitis across his 200-cow…

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Insights

DAIRY

How milk testing could help predict lameness in dairy cows

A study has revealed that sampling and testing milk for specific biomarkers could help farmers predict lameness in dairy cows long before the onset of visible symptoms. The presence of…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Why low-cost devices can be effective to detect lameness

Low-cost thermal imaging devices are as effective at detecting lameness in dairy cattle as expensive alternatives, a study led by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed. Infrared thermal imaging…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Why genetics can play bigger role in breeding out lameness

Good husbandry, environment and nutrition all play a part in the fight against dairy cow lameness. But new research has found genetics has a bigger role than was previously thought.…

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News

LIVESTOCK

Vets raise risk of twisted feet for heifers on sand

Farmers housing in-calf heifers on sand cubicles with concrete in front of the feed barrier are being advised to take steps to avoid problems with “reverse corkscrew” in the feet.…

FOOT HEALTH

Keptoprofen eases pain of digital dermatitis, trial shows

Trials of the drug ketoprofen in cattle suffering with digital dermatitis have shown it can be used as an effective painkiller, helping to maintain milk yields. The research work was…

SHEEP

Foot-rot link to Codd could help control disease in sheep

Research into the relationship between contagious ovine digital dermatitis (Codd) and foot-rot showed that when Codd was introduced into flocks with healthy feet, 83.3% of Codd lesions developed in feet…

FOOT HEALTH

Cattle health research reveals biggest challenge for farmers

Lameness has been singled out as the top health and welfare challenge in the cattle sector by a survey of 240 farmers. More than one-third (36%) of respondents specified this…

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Video

FOOT HEALTH

Advice on how to vaccinate sheep against foot-rot

Vaccination to reduce foot-rot in sheep is just one part of a national five-point plan designed to lessen overall disease pressure from infectious lameness, by improving flock resilience to the…

LIVESTOCK

Hit Squad helps tackle lameness in Carmarthenshire

As a follow-up to Farmers Weekly's campaign, sheep lameness experts Ruth Clements of FAI Farms and vet Joseph Angell from Liverpool University formed the Stamp Out Lameness Hit Squad. They…

LIVESTOCK

Welsh sheep farm looks to Stamp Out Lameness

As a follow up to Farmers Weekly's campaign, a group of specialists teamed up to form the Stamp out Lameness hit squad and visited three farms to highlight key areas…

LIVESTOCK

Video: Detect lameness early with new automatic system

A new fully automated mobility alerting system could help dairy farmers tackle lameness. IceScore Mobility from IceRobotics, automatically and continuously monitors dairy cows and promptly alerts the farmer when an…

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