Cattle lameness has been a persistent welfare challenge, but genuine progress is being made. Understanding what drives improvement helps accelerate further change.
Progress in cattle lameness prevention demonstrates that persistent welfare problems can be meaningfully reduced through evidence-based management, economic incentives, and supply chain pressure. The reduction from over a third of dairy cows lame to a quarter represents hundreds of thousands fewer suffering animals annually in the UK alone. Continuing this progress toward target prevalences below 10% requires sustained effort across all levers.