Our contract milking system is contributing to the number of lame cows in NZ. This may seem like a strange thing to say but from a lameness perspective, the contract milking system has one major issue that could be easily fixed if people recognize the problem and change the contract accordingly. Let me explain what […]
Last month I attended the International Lameness in Ruminants Conference in Tokyo, Japan. This is a conference where the latest research in lameness is presented from all over the world. You wouldn’t necessarily think of Japan as a dairy country, but dairy is actually a significant industry there and so with that comes lameness, which […]
Tempertures have been very high over the summer months and people are enjoying their summer holidays with long days at the beach, water skiing and swimming. At home we turn on the air conditioning or have a fan blowing through the night helping us sleep. We enjoy temperatures of around 20-25 degrees, and I am […]
I have come across the comment a few times that people are confused about the advice they are getting regarding lameness. There are contradicting messages going around from professionals about the causes of lameness, especially when it comes to tracks. It has come to my attention that people hear me saying that I don’t believe […]
OAD or TAD? That’s the question. When you hear a farmer talk about OAD (Once-A-Day) milking it is often noted that cows are so much happier. Milk production does not seem to drop that much, and they have a lot less lame cows. If you go by that, why wouldn’t you go OAD milking and […]
We recently held another Hoof Care Expo and the theme was “Are stones really an issue for your cows?” It amazes me how convinced people are that stones can penetrate hooves and that bruises in the hoof are caused by stones. I often ask this question and I will do it again now. How do […]
Around mating time lameness seems to increase. Most people believe that the reason for this is the extra pressure that is on the hooves when a cow is being bulled by another cow. This goes alongside the theory that hooves get damaged by pushing, twisting and turning. Even many non-agricultural based people assume that to […]
Do you understand the benefits of claw blocks? It is quite interesting what sort of responses farmers give to this question. Some think they are wonderful, some think they are too expensive, some struggle to make them stick on for any longer than a few steps and some make comments like “just make sure you […]
We are now starting the dry period. Another season has gone by and it is time to refresh and take life a little easier. Some of you may even go away on a holiday. Cows are gone for the winter or, if we have them on the run-off, we only must feed them and leave […]
What is preventative hoof trimming? I have been on farms where they had done their own preventative hoof trimming during the year. When I started doing my trimming I had to explain what I was doing and it turned out to be quite different from the way that they did it. This made me wonder […]
