Cow Comfort and Animal Welfare in Relation to Claw Diseases in Pasture Based Dairy Herds

There is no disease of dairy cattle where an understanding of cow comfort and animal welfare is more relevant than with lameness. As the average size of New Zealand dairy herds grows lameness is becoming the dairy industry’s greatest welfare problem.
For consultants, hoof trimmers, veterinarians and scientists with an interest in lameness it is easy to fall into the trap of seeing the problem simply in terms of dollar cost to the industry, or the need for accurate classification of the lesions, or looking for the best treatment, or in terms of another opportunity to write a peer reviewed paper. The herdsman on the farm may understand nothing about our areas of speciality – all he sees is a limping cow. The trap he may fall into if he sees many limping cows is to gradually loose any initial feeling of sympathy and label anything apart from severe lameness as something that is normal or just part and parcel ...