Lameness is the most significant welfare problem in dairy cattle, and emerging technology for automated lameness detection offers the prospect of earlier, more consistent welfare intervention.
Lameness causes chronic, often severe pain from infected or damaged foot tissues. Lame cows show clear behavioural pain indicators: altered gait, reduced time standing, reduced feed intake, and lower social rank behaviour. Despite being clearly observable, lameness is widely undertreated on dairy farms — surveys consistently find cows lame for weeks to months before intervention. Automated lameness detection technology closes the welfare gap between problem onset and intervention: wearable sensors detecting altered gait, computer vision systems identifying limping in real time, and pressure mat systems measuring weight distribution all enable earlier identification than routine visual inspection. Welfare benefit requires not just detection but rapid response — automated alerts to farm managers must be coupled with a culture of prompt veterinary farriery intervention.