Dairy welfare, handling, lameness Two recent conferences in the
upper Midwest focused on the topic of dairy welfare: the I-29
Dairy Conference in Sioux Falls and the Wisconsin Dairy and Beef
Animal Husbandry Conference. We have been hearing more and more
about dairy welfare in our industry. This is a societal issue
that is here to stay. Lameness was on the agenda at the I-29
conference. Jan Shearer, extension veterinarian at Iowa State,
indicated that lameness is today the most costly disorder in
dairy herds surpassing mastitis. It reduces milk production,
impairs reproduction, and can result in premature culling and
death. In the context of the three areas that comprise welfare –
animal health and functioning, natural behavior, and affective
states (pain, distress) suggested by Fraser (animal welfare
expert at the University of British Columbia) – lameness fails
in every one of them. A lame cow has impaired performance, can't
walk naturally and interact with her peers, and is certainly in
a lot of pain. Ther