Prioritising Risk Factors for Dairy Heifer Lameness Through Iterative Consultation

A questionnaire survey was carried out to prioritise the risk factors associated with lameness affecting dairy heifers. Respondents were asked to score the importance of risk factors in the development of lameness associated with 4 classes of lesion and with reference to two distinct time points; birth to three months pre-calving and three months pre-calving to three months post-calving. The responses received gave some ranking of on farm risk factors for lameness in dairy heifers and provided the basis of a mechanistic approach to identifying points of lameness control on farm ...