APPLIEDSCIENCE
By Marina von Keyserlingk and Dan Weary
Countering lameness R
econfiguring your stall design can reduce the risk of lameness, the number one welfare concern facing the Canadian dairy industry. Recent research shows stall design takes on even more importance as your cows go through the crucial transition period. Lameness, a painful condition affecting many dairy cows, results in serious economic consequences for dairy farmers. Producers are often forced to cull severely lame cows. Moreover, lame cows have poorer reproductive performance, perhaps because they are less likely to show signs of estrus behaviours, such as mounting and standing for mounting. Previous research by the University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program has shown farmers can reduce lameness in their herds by moving neck rails in freestalls further from the curb. This allows cows to spend more time standing fully in their stalls and less time perching— fore feet in the stall and hind feet in the alley as shown in Figure 1. More recent UBC research has investigated behaviours during transition associated with lameness and the
There are steps you can take with your transition cows to reduce the risk of the number one animal welfare issue the industry faces
development of hoof lesions in lactating dairy cows. In one study, we measured the standing behaviour of Holstein cows two weeks before calving to three weeks after calving. We used video cameras to score where cows were standing: at the feeder, in the feed alley, in the alley adjacent to stalls or standing two or four feet in the stalls. We also scored their hoof health once a month for three months after they calved. We excluded cows that were lame
Figure 1. Cows that spend more time perching (standing with their two front hooves in the stall) are more likely to become lame.
38 | June 2012 | MilkPRODUCER
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - June 2012