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Harnessing data for better hoof health

Hoof health management in dairy cows has seen considerable development in recent years. The UK Dairy Cattle Welfare Strategy (UDCWS) ensures it remains a key focus for optimising hoof health, and crucial for a fit-for-purpose plan is good data.

‘Healthy Feet’ is one of six strategic goals aimed at helping the UK maintain its status as a global leader in animal health and welfare innovation in practice.

When it comes to optimising hoof health, a proactive lameness management plan is crucial, and the key to a fit-for-purpose plan is good data.

Keeping better data on cow health is one of the most efficient ways of measuring improvements, demonstrating progress, and identifying issues early. This is where VetIMPRESS can play a hugely positive role, the platform enables the dairy industry to make real progress when it comes to identifying where action is required to enhance animal health and productivity.

Vets are increasingly using VetIMPRESS to record real-time data on-farm, developing and quickly accessing individual animal records, and using the insights to inform herd health management actions. This allows for active decision-making and better outcomes for farm clients.

For vets, foot trimmers, and farmers, VetIMPRESS enables simple and effective collection of lameness and mobility scores cow-side in real time. The result is a clear picture of hoof health, all in one place.

VetIMPRESS allows the industry to demonstrate progress against initiatives such as the UK Dairy Cattle Welfare Strategy. With all the data vets and farmers need on one platform, assessing and enhancing animal health is straightforward.

Easier analysis is just one reported benefit in a case study illustrating how a veterinary business uses VetIMPRESS to manage their lameness services.

Synergy Farm Health, a team of vets and vet technicians operating across South-West England, use the platform to collect mobility scoring, foot trimming, and body condition data.

The biggest benefits the team has found since introducing VetIMPRESS is the ability to access a full and detailed animal history on farm and having a central place to store and share reports with farm clients.

Vet technician Daryl Foot explains the difference that using VetIMPRESS has made to their practice.

“VetIMPRESS gives you a full and detailed animal history and it’s constantly updated so you have the most recent data from BCMS and NMR,” says Daryl. “This is useful if you’re on the farm and nobody is around as you can view the animal’s history and see if she is in calf or if a routine trim is needed. The other thing that’s really useful is we can instantly send a report off to the farmer at the end of our visit. This means our customers are getting a better insight into herd health and performance, and what we’ve done during our visit.”

More detail on the Dairy Cattle Welfare Strategy 2023-2028 is available here.

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