Lameness is the most significant welfare and production problem in dairy cattle. Systematic lameness scoring enables herd-level monitoring and targeted intervention to reduce suffering.
Dairy cow lameness is a welfare crisis hiding in plain sight. The scale is staggering — millions of dairy cows are lame on any given day — but the gradual onset and the stoic behaviour of cattle means individual cases accumulate before they are noticed. Lameness causes persistent pain affecting every walk to the feed barrier, milking parlour, and water trough. Regular locomotion scoring provides the systematic detection that individual observation misses: walking every cow past a trained observer twice monthly identifies lame individuals at treatable stages. Farms achieving low lameness prevalence demonstrate that good management — hoof trimming programmes, track surfaces, appropriate housing — can dramatically reduce herd lameness without production compromise.