Lameness is the third most significant welfare and production problem in dairy cattle, causing chronic pain in millions of cows and costing the industry billions annually.
Dairy cow lameness is simultaneously one of the most prevalent and most preventable welfare failures in modern farming. A lame cow walks reluctantly, lies down more, eats less, loses weight and produces less milk — but all of this occurs gradually enough that farmers habituate to it as normal. Validated locomotion scoring tools allow early detection, and prompt treatment produces dramatically better outcomes than waiting for severe lameness. The strong economic incentive aligns perfectly with the welfare incentive: preventing and treating lameness early is both the right thing to do and the profitable thing to do.