A dairy producer watching his herd may only notice a quarter of the cows that are actually lame in his barn due to familiarity and limited practice using locomotion scoring.

However, finding and treating lameness can save dairy producers tens of thousands of dollars so understanding hoof health, hoof trimming and early detection are keys to a successful dairy, says Mark Gerber, a master hoof trimmer and salesperson with Zinpro Performance Minerals. He was the keynote speaker at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Dairy Day held in Elmwood January 4.

Later in the day, a panel also addressed dairy lameness and discussed overstocking, barn hygiene and early detection giving dairy farmers in attendance lots of valuable material to think on when they went back to milk their cows. See that story next.

Gerber said “lameness is the one disease that can put a dairy producer out of business if not property managed”, stealing the quote from Dr. Jan Shearer. “I really believe that,” he said, crediting skills at locomotion scoring as the best way to recognize the problem in a dairy herd.

“I look at the cow’s back posture, her foot placement and her head movements,” said Gerber. An arched back is a sure sign of hoof pain. Next is watching to see if the cow’s rear legs land right in the spot where the front leg just left. A shortened stride is indicative of lameness. Finally, when a cow walks with her head bopping down, she has back foot problems. When her head bops up, it’s a front hoof issue. Locomotion scores range from 1 (perfect) to 5, which are “hard to fix’’ meaning that cows won’t last long in the herd.

Gerber encouraged farmers to have fresh eyes come into the barn to do the location scoring. Farmers tend to get used to how their cows look and can miss the locomotion scores of two and three, which is where a hoof trimmer can be most effective. He likes to see herds with 75 per cent of the cattle scored one, 15 per cent scored two, five per cent scoring three and the remainder scoring less than that. “It’s a good target but it’s hard to get to,” he admits.

Understanding foot anatomy is also wise, particularly in terms of how short and angled a hoof should be after trimming.  Gerber likes to see a short foot at 3.25 inches that is steeply angled at 50-52 degrees. The goal of hoof trimming is to slice out any lesions and ulcers, treat for digital dermatitis and trim the bottom of the hoof so the cow walks on her toes, not her heels.

“If the hoof is less than three inches, we do not put a grinder to the foot,” he said.

So what makes a cow lame in the first place? The first problem is concrete. Cows were never meant to live on concrete. Since most dairy cows in North America do, he is a fan of pasture time to give cows a break. Inside the barn, stalls should be so comfortable that cows want to lay in them 12 hours a day. “When they are laying down for nine hours or less, they are lamer than heck,” he said

Farmers often blame nutrition for lameness but Gerber said with the advent of total mixed rations, he believes nutrition only accounts for five to six per cent of lameness. “The rest is caused by management on the dairy,” he said.

Dairies where cows stand too long in wet manure, where they have to make too many sharp turns, where cow comfort is lacking and where cows are fighting for space at the bunk are all contributors to cow lameness. 

Hoof diseases are divided into infections and noninfectious. In the non-infectious category, are sole hemorrhages and sole ulcers (when the hemorrhage breaks through). In these cases, the hoof has to be thoroughly cleaned and any tissue not connected to the hoof has to be cut away. It can be a daunting process and Gerber says most farmers do not go far enough. He stressed that sometimes you have to cut a lot of claw to get rid of it or else the cow will soon be lame again. These heavily-trimmed hooves require a block to take pressure off the sensitive claw and allow it to heal. Blocks can stay on for 90 days but no longer.

White line disease is another hoof issue caused from too many 90 degree turns. “We say from pen to parlour, no more than six 90 degree turns,” said Gerber.

Amongst the infectious hoof disease, digital dermatitis (otherwise known as strawberry foot rot) is the one Gerber gets asked the most about in Ontario. It is highly contagious and can run rampant through dairy barns, creating severe lameness issues.

Gerber recommended long, deep foot baths treated with formaldehyde or copper sulfate. He prefers formaldehyde but said “if you don’t wear a mask, you might not be vertical in a few years.” He liked baths to be 12 feet in length and five inches deep so the back hooves get dunked at least twice and recommended a permanent bath, as temporary baths are problematic. How often you change the solution depends on how many cows are going through and how dirty they are.  “If your hygiene score is a two (hygiene scores range from 1-clean to 4-manure up to hock) you can run the bath a couple of times a week but if your hygiene score is a four, you need to run a foot bath everyday,” he said.

It’s critical to get on top of strawberry foot rot because it cycles every 45-60 days, leading to constant reinfection when not treated. Gerber also recommends treating heifers and dry cows with tetracycline sprays and foot wraps so they don’t infect the milking herd when they enter it.

In terms of trimmers, Gerber said there are good ones and terrible ones. The terrible ones tend to take their grinder and go heavy on the hoof, leaving the cows with too little cushion. Or they don’t angle the grinder right, so the cows walk more on their heels than their toes. His rule of thumb is no trimming close-up or fresh cows. “Neither do we trim early lactation cows,” he said. The best time is during  the dry-off period. ◊

then sand-bedded freestalls…that is what I see around here.

Gerber: Sand is the top for cow comfort, then recycled manure, then rubber mattresses.

Groen: I agree with all of that. One key is maintenance. Reflooring is timely. Just because you designed a new barn and put sand in 10 or 15 years ago, it will not be the same as it was on day one. So regroove your floors, dig out the back of your sand stalls, and reposition neck rails because cow size has changed over the years.

What is the relation of cow comfort to lameness?

Nagel: Shade curtains are huge. What I’ve seen in the summer, is sun beaming into the barn and it’s like an electric fence is up – no cows are there. That leads to overstocking at certain parts of the day.

Gerber: In a pasture, cows like to lay uphill. You need to look at your brisket boards and see if they are in the right place. Or rip them out. You might need to reposition your rails. Also, it’s fair to say most barns are underventilated. People cheat and don’t put in enough fans and you won’t feel a breeze at the other end of the barn. 

Kelton: Stocking density is part of this. In the new Dairy Code of Practice, they are moving the industry back to a stocking density of one and part of that is having sufficient space for cows to lie down. They need a minimum of 12 hours of lying time for productivity and cow comfort.

What about barn hygiene and preventing lameness from that perspective?

Groen:  Hygiene dictates how often you have to run a foot bath. If your foot bath has to get through a great pile of manure, you will have to run that foot bath more often. If you have a manure scraper running that creates a tsunami of manure over their hooves, you will not break digital dermatitis. We beat stall maintenance to death but the cleaner those stalls are, the less time cows are standing in a wet and dirty environment.

Nagel: You have to run manure spreaders more than you think. Some of these barns are so long that by the time that scraper gets to the end, there is a flood of manure. Go to the controller and dial it up.

What can we do to improve lameness detection?

Nagel: Robotic milkers are good indicators because if a cow is lame, she will not go in there. As a hoof trimmer, I can easily detect lesions and farmers have more troubles because they see those cows everyday and don’t see the small progression from healthy feet to lameness.

Groen: Work with a team of advisors and use them as an extra set of eyes to score your cows. Do this once or twice a year.

Kelton: In a freestall operation, return alleys seem to be the best place to score cattle because her udder isn’t full. Unfortunately, that’s the time farmers are most busy. I recommend asking your veterinarian to come at milking time and score the cows walking back so it becomes a routine process. We promote a team approach. Keep records because without records, experts cannot help you. 

Gerber: I agree that return lanes offer the best vision. You can use technology such as Step Metrics. But you don’t want to be 100 per cent reliant on a computer program. The human eye is still more accurate.

Other Comments:

Groen: No matter what your hoof trimming schedule is, just avoid trimming cows in the transition period. You do not want to put those cows under additional stress when she’s losing weight.

Kelton: The best schedule is always the one that gets done. Hoof trimming is something that has to be done on a regular basis and has to be adhered to. Do not let it slip. Having a schedule and sticking to it is critical. ◊