For hoof's sake - get lame cows sorted??
Despite August snow and more than 22 rain days in October, this spring has been a vast improvement on 2010! Nonetheless, there has still been a significant number of lame cows to treat.
With bulls out with the cows, silage in and crops sewn, you will hopefully take the time to look back and assess how it all went. Reflecting on your spring, was lameness an issue? - Is there an opportunity to make life easier next year??
Cost
After infertility and mastitis, lameness is the most common reason cows are culled. Each lame cow costs you $200 in treatment costs and milk losses. If a cow is then culled or doesn't get in calf as a result of lameness, there's an additional $1000 in replacement costs.
Plus there are the overlooked costs of staff time and stress in having to manage and treat lame cows.
Prevention
The key to reducing the cost of lame cows is of course prevention - and although there is no ‘quick fix' for lameness, getting a preventative process started is easy.
To help farmers tackle lameness, DairyNZ has piloted and promoted Healthy Hoof - a straightforward stepwise approach to managing lameness on dairy farms. Better still, Healthy Hoof is based on the work of renowned lameness expert and Taranaki based veterinarian, Neil Chesterton.
The purpose of Healthy Hoof is to help farmers reduce lame cows through improved management of cows, and people. Although most farmers already have a good understanding of the physical causes of lameness, poor stock flow continues to be a major contributing factor to lame cows.
Healthy Hoof is only offered by registered advisers listed on the DairyNZ website. To help our clients, Totally Vets has invested in training several of our veterinarians in providing the programme.
Take the first step in getting lame cows sorted. To find out more about the Healthy Hoof Programme, contact Totally Vets and have one of our Healthy Hoof advisers give you a call.
