Lameness evaluation of free stall housed dairy cows in northern NY dairy herds

Locomotion scoring was performed on 7999 cows on seven free stall dairy operations in northern New York to evaluate lameness prevalence rates. Additionally, management factors that may influence lameness prevalence rates were evaluated. These included observations of feedbunks, foot trimming schedule, bedding surface and material, footbath practices, cow comfort, overcrowding, culling records and shaker box analysis of TMR’s fed. Each herd was visited once and a locomotion score ranging from 1 (no gait abnormality) to 4 (severe lameness) was assigned to all milking cows. Cows with a score of 2-4 were considered clinically lame. The mean ± SD was 14.5 ± 1.3%. The range was 13.2-16.1%. With less than 3% difference in prevalence rates among all the evaluated farms, no correlation could be made regarding the management factors evaluated and their effect on lameness prevalence