Lameness is one of the most significant welfare problems in sheep farming, causing chronic pain and reduced productivity, but evidence-based management can prevent and treat the most common causes effectively.
Sheep lameness is a welfare problem with clear, evidence-based solutions that are not consistently adopted. LAMENESS5 and similar farmer training programmes demonstrate that lameness prevalence can be dramatically reduced with the right knowledge and management commitment. The barriers are awareness, time, and economic pressure rather than a lack of effective interventions. Lame sheep experience chronic pain that impairs their ability to feed, move, and care for lambs - a welfare harm that compounds the production impact. Integrating lameness management into farm assurance requirements, with minimum prevalence thresholds, creates the external accountability needed to ensure consistent management across the industry.