Lameness is one of the most significant welfare problems in dairy and beef cattle, causing chronic pain and significant economic loss if not effectively prevented and treated.
Cattle lameness represents one of the most widespread chronic welfare problems in commercial livestock farming. A lame cow is in persistent pain and her welfare is significantly compromised for days, weeks, or months if lameness goes undetected or untreated. Effective lameness management requires regular locomotion scoring to detect early cases, prompt treatment, appropriate convalescent housing, good floor surfaces without excessive slipperiness or abrasion, and nutritional management that supports hoof health. Farms with robust lameness prevention programmes achieve dramatically lower prevalence, demonstrating that high lameness rates are a management failure rather than an inevitability.