locamotion scoring.

Dead Rabbits · Apr 27, 2021

lazy farmer said:
Scored today

96% 0
(We no longer use 1 as a relevant score)
3.4% 2
.6 3

Damn good results. I’ve been wondering, whether your concrete lanes are a good idea for longer walks? So many of the hoof issues on confinement dairy’s are due to concrete. The 5-10k units are having some serious walks just due to scale and I’ve been told it’s not fantastic for the cows. I hate lameness almost as much as you. It’s about 10% of what it used to be before I started here and more improvements to go.

Stevethemeat · Apr 27, 2021

Has any one locomotion scored their herdsman recently somthing I suffer from is lameness just a thought

DairyGrazing · Apr 27, 2021

We have a 600m length of sandstone track which I'm sure is kinder on thier feet but it's useless in the wet and they won't walk down it. Our main cow track is concrete so thin soles to become an issue by the Autumn.

Once you take a zero approach to lameness it's almost embarrassing what you accepted in the past. 10-15 years ago we had a ground of 40 cows called the crocks which were all the lame cows. Don't need it now. It's funny how things change we used to get necrotic toes when we had steps into the parlour. I know we can fix them now, I'd never have believed that in the past.

On a side note people kid themselves. I see someone on here's cows cross the road alot and they aren't even close to the score they are claiming!

lazy farmer · Apr 27, 2021

DairyGrazing said:
View attachment 957162

We have a 600m length of sandstone track which I'm sure is kinder on thier feet but it's useless in the wet and they won't walk down it. Our main cow track is concrete so thin soles to become an issue by the Autumn.

Once you take a zero approach to lameness it's almost embarrassing what you accepted in the past. 10-15 years ago we have a ground of 40 cows called the crocks which were all the lame cows. Don't need it now. It's funny how things change we used to get necrotic toes when we had steps into the parlour. I know we can fix them now, I'd never have believed that in the past.

On a side note people kid themselves. I see someone on here's cows cross the road alot and they aren't even close to the score they are claiming

Would never knowingly cross or use the road with a lame cow. That would involve walking them longer distances than necessary.
you are right. Things we used to deem as acceptable just aren’t. At its worst nearly a. Decade ago now we had the final row made up of lame cow mostly with W/L
Now when a cow comes in lame it stands out making early treatment all the easier.

lazy farmer · Apr 27, 2021

Dead Rabbits said:
Damn good results. I’ve been wondering, whether your concrete lanes are a good idea for longer walks? So many of the hoof issues on confinement dairy’s are due to concrete. The 5-10k units are having some serious walks just due to scale and I’ve been told it’s not fantastic for the cows. I hate lameness almost as much as you. It’s about 10% of what it used to be before I started here and more improvements to go.

Thank you.
As for concrete and large distances I can’t really comment as we would only walk 1k to the farthest paddocks. On the Distances we walk we would find some cows mid season need trimming as they have become thick risking ulcers.

lazy farmer · Sep 17, 2021

Getting there

lazy farmer · May 17, 2022

Latest scoring

so we have 5. 2s Or 1.88%
The rest 98.12% are all 0 s

Jdunn55 · May 18, 2022

lazy farmer said:
Latest scoring View attachment 1036768so we have 5. 2s Or 1.88%
The rest 98.12% are all 0 s

I've just read through this thread, nice to see the progress you've made, goes to show that mobility scoring wasn't a waste of time!

Foot trimming is something I need to get better at doing, couple of questions for you, how often do you score them and where (as the come out the parlour?)?

also how often do you foot trim (excluding emergency trimming for a cow who's gone lame overnight)?

And when you do foot trim what % of the herd are you doing? Do you just trim once they've been scored and just sort out the 2's or are you doing something more routinely etc?

Thanks

lazy farmer · May 18, 2022

Jdunn55 said:
I've just read through this thread, nice to see the progress you've made, goes to show that mobility scoring wasn't a waste of time!

Foot trimming is something I need to get better at doing, couple of questions for you, how often do you score them and where (as the come out the parlour?)?

also how often do you foot trim (excluding emergency trimming for a cow who's gone lame overnight)?

And when you do foot trim what % of the herd are you doing? Do you just trim once they've been scored and just sort out the 2's or are you doing something more routinely etc?

Thanks

First off I’m very lucky to have the ability to easily sort cows for trimming and then have a crush on the end of the separation pen. Admittedly the crush is less than perfect and would be a candidate for upgrading in the near future. Making a job as easy as possible to start is 99% of the job.

we trim everything at drying off. Now we have concrete tracks our problems have changed from White line to overgrowth and bruising which obviously lead to sole ulcers. So every cow has back feet lifted in December before drying off. A vast majority are just preventive trims but a few are on the edge of having real problems which keeps the motivation levels up(just)

after calving and before service the separation pen is empty so I will trim any cows that look overgrown (long or toe lifting) after being on concrete over winter. So between 1/3 and 1/2 the herd. Everything we do is about prevention. A lame cow is a failure and I’m not great and treating lame cows so do everything I can to prevent them.

After AI season I will then lift anything again that looks overgrown. Which won’t be many maybe 20% of the herd between august and December.

DairyGrazing · May 19, 2022

lazy farmer said:
First off I’m very lucky to have the ability to easily sort cows for trimming and then have a crush on the end of the separation pen. Admittedly the crush is less than perfect and would be a candidate for upgrading in the near future. Making a job as easy as possible to start is 99% of the job.

we trim everything at drying off. Now we have concrete tracks our problems have changed from White line to overgrowth and bruising which obviously lead to sole ulcers. So every cow has back feet lifted in December before drying off. A vast majority are just preventive trims but a few are on the edge of having real problems which keeps the motivation levels up(just)

after calving and before service the separation pen is empty so I will trim any cows that look overgrown (long or toe lifting) after being on concrete over winter. So between 1/3 and 1/2 the herd. Everything we do is about prevention. A lame cow is a failure and I’m not great and treating lame cows so do everything I can to prevent them.

After AI season I will then lift anything again that looks overgrown. Which won’t be many maybe 20% of the herd between august and December.

Big uplift for us was brushing the tracks regularly to keep the stones off especially after tractors have been up and down. Stop all the stone penetrations that we were getting in the Autumn.

locamotion scoring.

Dead Rabbits

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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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