The Impact of Freestall Barn Design on Lameness and Mastitis in Wisconsin

A University of Wisconsin-Madison lameness survey was carried out on 30 well recorded dairy herds – 15 stanchion/tie-stall and 15 free-stall, with a variety of stall bases. Each herd was visited twice – once in the spring/summer of 2000 and once in the winter of 2001. On both occasions, all milking cows were locomotion scored 1 through 4 with cows scoring 3 or 4 classified as lame. The proportion of cows that were lame varied widely between herds from 7.9% to 51.9%, but scoring was consistent within a herd between the two visits. Mean lameness prevalence was higher during the winter at 24.8% than during the spring/summer at 21.8%. On average, around 23% of dairy cows are lame on US dairy herds at any one time. This number is higher than previously reported in North America, but consistent with the findings in the UK over recent times. Eleven of the thirty dairy herds kept lameness treatment records and on average, there were 73 lameness treatments per 100 cows per year – three times the recorded prevalence for these herds.