Linking Farm Physical Conditions, Herd Management and Cow Behaviour to the Distribution of Foot Lesions Causing Lameness in Pasture-fed Dairy Cattle in New Zealand

New Zealand has a pasture-based dairy industry. Dairy cattle often walk further than one kilometre twice daily along gravel tracks to the milking shed from pasture. The cows congregate in concrete yards and stand for up to ½ hours as they wait to enter the milking parlour. Both these processes predispose the feet to damage. Herd sizes are increasing dramatically and it is not unusual for a herd of 400 or 500 cows to be handled as one group. The manner in which they are handled can further predispose the animals to foot damage. It is not surprising that greater the 75 per cent of lameness in New Zealand is traumatic in origin (Chesterton, 1988; Tranter and Morris, 1991) ...