Effect of Locomotion Core and Cause of Lameness on Feed Intake, Feeding Behaviour, Liveweight Change, Milk Yield, Milk Let Down, Milking Duration of Holstein Friesian Dairy Cattle

Internationally, lameness of dairy cattle has consistently been ranked as the third most important health related economic loss to dairy industry, following fertility and mastitis. Most economic loss due to lameness results from the accrued costs of premature culling, veterinary treatment, increased labour, discarded milk, prolonged calving interval and reduced milk production (Kossaibati and Esslemont, 1997; Enting et al., 1997). Moreover, lameness causes the animal considerable pain and discomfort (Whay et al., 1998) in addition to the increased risk of culling due to reduced milk production (Warnick et al., 2001; RajalaSchultz et al., 1999; Green et al., 2002)) lower body condition (Vermunt, 2004) and reduced reproductive efficiency (Sprecher et al., 1997 and Collick et al., 1989). However, loss of production and the effect of lameness on a cow’s welfare can be minimised if lameness is detected at an early stage and treatment is started as soon as possible (Guard, 2004). To this end many researchers have been working on better understanding the effect on cow behaviour and developing methods of measuring cow behaviour that gives a clear early indication of lameness. The aim of this research was to use a long term data capture ...