30 Sept 2025
Owen Atkinson BVSc, DCHP, FRCVS explains the thinking behind this project and the results it could help with.
Owen Atkinson
Job Title
Image: Menno Schaefer / Adobe Stock
Dairy cow foot health remains a keystone endemic production disorder for dairy farms. The GB Dairy Cow Lameness Manifesto is an initiative under the auspices of the Dairy Cattle Mobility Steering Group, chaired by University of Nottingham professor Martin Green, and launched in January 2025.
It is a collective British dairy industry commitment to incrementally reduce dairy cow lameness over the next 20 years, so that it becomes minimal across all herds. This will improve cow welfare, reduce carbon footprint and safeguard the social licence of dairy farming.
It might, at first sight, seem somewhat extravagant to have a manifesto on a single dairy cow health issue. After all, foot health has much competition for attention when set against various other conditions, including mastitis, BVD, Johne’s disease and, of course, bTB.
However, lameness in dairy herds was identified as the highest priority health and production syndrome of cattle in 2021 by the UK Ruminant Health and Welfare group1.
Of all endemic diseases, improvement here is likely to have the largest single impact on reducing methane in the UK cattle sector2. What’s more, improvements in foot health will make the dairy industry more sustainable from an economic perspective3. Finally, let us not forget that cows that show signs of lameness are suffering pain and discomfort; dairy consumers rightly expect the provenance of their food to be welfare friendly, and improving foot health substantially helps to meet that objective.
So, one can argue that it is justified. But what can a manifesto achieve? Words, when all said and done, don’t eliminate the extensive list of reasons why cows become lame. However, there is a rationale in drawing attention to what needs to be done, and this is perhaps the first good reason for having the manifesto, and it does this in a very straightforward manner by listing a series of 21 actions.
Secondly, if government funding might ever be awarded to help farmers to reduce lameness through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway (England), the Animal Health Improvement Cycle (Wales) or the Animal Health and Welfare Interventions (Scotland), then the governments need to be able to see a business case for doing this, and how the industry could potentially deliver improvements.
The GB Dairy Cow Lameness Manifesto does just that, and it has already been well received by the Defra Animal Health and Welfare Pathway group, as it demonstrates industry collaboration, which is viewed positively by government bodies.
It must be stressed that there is no clear indication, as yet, if or when lameness will be formally integrated into the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway in England. Meanwhile, the Welsh Government’s sustainable farming scheme has confirmed that there will be mandatory requirements for all participating farmers related to lameness management.
The third rationale for having this manifesto is that no single entity within the dairy industry can tackle lameness by itself. The solutions and resources to do so must come from many stakeholders, including farmers themselves, processors and, of course, vets.
The manifesto was born out of an industry stakeholder meeting in October 2023, organised by the Dairy Cattle Mobility Steering Group, largely instigated by its chairperson, Prof Green, with valuable support from the AHDB.
During this meeting, there was a commitment from all valuable quarters to ensure that change happened, and each dairy stakeholder reaffirmed that improving dairy cow foot health was essential to their own future success.
To farm vets working at the coalface, it isn’t always apparent what the priorities are of dairy processors or others in the dairy production-retail chain, but it is fair to say that they do have lameness in their sights, and for very good reasons. Not only is it on processors’ radars from a public perception and welfare perspective, but lameness also features very highly when they are competing for retailer business, where they have to demonstrate sustainability improvements.
Lameness has a high tariff on dairy farms’ carbon footprints through shortened lifespans and reduced production efficiency. The manifesto is a suitable vehicle by which various stakeholders can collaborate in various ways on this single issue, each bringing their own particular strengths and influence to the table.
Signatories to the manifesto come from a wide range of sectors within the dairy industry. They have committed to work collaboratively to achieve a single objective, which is to incrementally reduce lameness prevalence by at least 10% year on year, until at least 95% of all British dairy herds achieve a lameness prevalence of less than 5% by 2044.
This objective will be achieved by implementing four strategies, which are:
Each strategy is underpinned by a total of 21 different actions. While no one individual organisation or stakeholder in the dairy industry is able to, or expected to, eliminate lameness by working alone, signatories have been invited to select the specific action or actions which they are able to deliver upon, and to periodically provide an update on their progress.
Target setting is important to the manifesto, but producing reliable lameness prevalence data is not easy. Previous experience has been that mobility scoring data collected where the results may have negative financial consequences for the milk producers has been less reliable than those collected through independent research initiatives.
An independently scored, anonymised sample of herds will be the preferred method to track progress on lameness prevalence against the milestones set out. This will be done to the best ability at the time. Improved objective measuring of lameness prevalence would by itself represent significant progress for the industry.
If the actions and strategies are successfully implemented, it is expected that the following milestones would be met:
In terms of understanding these targets in relation to the present, it is estimated that the British dairy herd has a lameness prevalence of around 30 per cent4,5, and it has remained high on a national level despite many advances in understanding around foot health, and despite the fact that many individual farms have reduced lameness substantially in their own herds.
Some in the industry have expressed concern there isn’t sufficient veterinary capacity to help farms improve foot health in a planned manner. Certainly, farm vets will be key to the lameness manifesto’s success: by tailoring advice to individual farms, and facilitating the farm team to make changes. Actions to reduce lameness can take several years to implement and bear results. By planning ahead and being strategic, vets can help farmers identify the right actions and encourage them to apply these as soon as possible. The Healthy Feet programme, delivered by trained “mobility mentors”, is one such proven framework for vets to do this.
Ideally, all vet practices with dairy farm clients are able to deliver the Health Feet programme. That would mean that they have at least one trained mobility mentor within their ranks. Training is via BCVA.
Many of the larger dairy practices have several vets who are mobility mentors, and there are many examples where these individuals are making a significant and disproportionate difference by championing foot health within their teams and within their client base. Perhaps a first step for practices wanting to make a difference is to ensure they have trained Register of Mobility Scorers personnel to help measure lameness and deliver rudimentary awareness training to their clients.
The largest three farm veterinary groups (XLVets, IVC Evidensia Farm Vets and Vet Partners) are all signatories to the manifesto already, and have identified actions they will undertake.
Practices can also become signatories in their own right. To find out more about the manifesto or to become a signatory, go to tinyurl.com/vhb8z9p9 or scan the QR code included below.
It is very possible to achieve minimal levels of lameness; the industry now has the knowledge and the tools to do so.
The manifesto is designed to galvanise and coordinate action across the whole industry and all herds to achieve the objective collaboratively, and for farms to be in step with each other.
Lameness reduction is a long-term process: changes made today, such as better breeding decisions or improvements to infrastructure and housing, can take several years to fully implement or yield results.
Consequently, by taking action now to improve foot health, this will strengthen the industry’s reputation and sustainability into the future.
