Preventing the most common and painful condition in dairy cows through proactive herd management.
Dairy cattle lameness is one of the most welfare-significant and economically costly preventable conditions in dairy production. Lame cows experience chronic pain that affects every dimension of their wellbeing — reduced mobility limits access to feed and water, pain disrupts normal behavioral repertoire, and the condition worsens when not treated promptly. The tragedy is that lameness at the rates seen in most herds is not inevitable: farms with proactive mobility scoring, footbath protocols, clean lying areas, and prompt treatment achieve dramatically lower lameness rates. The welfare and economic cases for prevention both point in the same direction.