Lameness affects 20-30% of dairy cows at any time in many herds, causing chronic pain that is both welfare-critical and economically significant yet remains underdiagnosed.
Dairy cow lameness represents one of the most numerically significant welfare failures in food animal production. A lame cow is in pain with every step — and dairy cows walk thousands of steps daily to reach milking parlours, feed alleys, and water points. The pain of lameness reduces feed intake and lying time, causing a welfare-compound of hunger, fatigue, and chronic pain simultaneously. Despite being highly prevalent and easily detectable through locomotion scoring, lameness is chronically under-identified on many farms — cows score 3+ on lameness scales while farmers assess them as sound. Structural interventions including cubicle length, floor surface grip, and walking distance to milking significantly affect lameness prevalence.