Lameness is one of the most prevalent and welfare-significant conditions in dairy cattle. Systematic lameness scoring allows farms to identify affected animals early, track trends, and measure the impact of interventions.
Lameness causes chronic pain that significantly degrades dairy cow welfare — lame cows spend more time lying down, have reduced access to feed and water, produce less milk, and have impaired reproduction. The high prevalence on many farms represents an ongoing welfare problem that has become normalised through familiarity. Systematic lameness scoring transforms this problem from invisible background noise into a measured, manageable condition. Farms that track and act on lameness data achieve consistently lower prevalence, demonstrating that high lameness rates are not inevitable.