Owl Farm case study - Lameness management

This page describes how Owl Farm cut its lameness rate after a run of bad cases in the 2019/20 season. Working with the Healthy Hoof programme at Cambridge Vets, the team traced most cases back to white line damage linked to how cows moved around the yard before milking.

Fixes included splitting the yard with the backing gate so cows enter from both sides, fitting a mirror so the backing gate operator can see the yard without climbing in, and auditing race quality to plan maintenance into the annual budget. Lameness in the herd fell from 34% to 13%, with a target of under 12%.

^{Photo: “Cattle on a farm in Banks Peninsula, New Zealand” by Charlie Mitchell, licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 4.0}