Vet survey highlights cattle lameness as top concern

Lameness is the top health and welfare challenge facing farmers and vets across the UK, according to a survey by the regulatory body for cattle health schemes.

Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS) conducted a survey of 240 vets and advisors, which pinpointed lameness as the top health and welfare challenge facing cattle farmers and vets, with infectious disease second and lack of investment third.

Key priorities

The online survey was carried out in June, and set out to understand how vets and advisors used the schemes, and what their key health and welfare priorities were.

A total of 88% of respondents were vets, with the remainder livestock or animal medicines advisors.

Economic pressures

More than a third (36%) specified “lameness” as the industry’s biggest health and welfare issue, with the next most common responses from 13% of participants being infectious diseases, of which about half specified “TB”.

A range of economic pressures producing low margins and preventing reinvestment in welfare was third, identified by 9%.

Challenges

When also asked about the biggest challenge related to farm profitability that cattle farmers and vets face, answers concerning low market prices and/or high input costs were most common (21%), followed by competition caused by Brexit and trade issues (20%), then infectious disease (19%).

Welsh dairy farmer Abi Reader, chairman of CHeCS, said it was noticeable that the survey raised a range of challenges outside of farmers’ control, but also issues they could do something about.

Opportunity

Ms Reader said: “At farm level, we are largely unable to influence Brexit or trade matters and have limited impact on sales price or input costs, or even misrepresentation, which can be incredibly frustrating.

“However, lameness and infectious disease are problems we can and must take the opportunity to address as they have a knock-on effect in terms of both profitability and reputation.”