Livestock

Livestock Cattle Mobility Scoring and Lameness Control

Systematic mobility scoring enables early lameness detection and treatment in cattle.

Key Facts

Mobility scoring uses a 0-3 scale from normal gait to severe lameness
Lame cows should be treated within days of detection to minimise pain duration
Regular scoring allows individual cow tracking and population-level benchmarking
Training stockpeople to recognise early lameness enables earlier intervention

Welfare Considerations

Cattle with undetected early lameness experience unnecessary pain for days or weeks before treatment. Systematic mobility scoring — walking cattle past a trained observer at least monthly — enables detection of lameness before it becomes severe. Prompt treatment with appropriate analgesia and hoof trimming dramatically reduces the duration and severity of suffering for each individual lame cow.

What You Can Do

Support mandatory mobility scoring requirements in dairy cattle welfare standards
Advocate for quarterly mobility scoring audits in high-welfare certification schemes
Choose dairy from producers with documented low lameness prevalence
Back training programmes in early lameness detection for dairy farm staff