Lameness is the most significant welfare problem in sheep farming. New technologies for early detection promise to transform management — but adoption faces practical and economic barriers.
Sheep lameness is a chronic welfare emergency in which millions of animals experience persistent pain that goes undetected or untreated across the UK and globally. The economics of sheep farming — low margins, large flock sizes, and limited labour — make individual animal monitoring challenging. Technology offers a route to closing this gap: automated gait analysis and pressure monitoring systems can flag early lameness before it becomes visually obvious, enabling earlier treatment that is both more effective and cheaper than treating established disease. The barrier to adoption is not technological but economic and cultural — integration into farm management practices requires training, investment, and a shift in farming culture toward more active welfare monitoring. Policy incentives and assurance scheme requirements are needed to accelerate adoption.