Do lame cows lead to thin cows or thin cows lead to lame cows?
In a recent Hoard’s Dairyman webinar, Dr. Mike Hutjens from the University of Illinois did an excellent presentation “Feed for hoof health”. He talked about the prevalence and costs of hoof problems, and some feeding and management strategies that can improve hoof health in dairy cows.
One of the interesting poll questions he raised was: do lame cows lead to thin cows OR thin cows lead to lame cows. Dr. Hutjens was generous enough and invited all the republicans and democrats to vote on this question. Most people were unsure about their choices and voted the first one. Dr. Hutjens then showed some new data supporting the concept that thin cows lead to lame cows.
As shown in figures below, cows have digital cushions in their hoof, and the soft cushions contain large amounts of mono-unsaturated fat. Digital cushion thickness provides cushion to the hoof structure and cows with thicker cushions are less likely to be lame than those with thinner cushions. The thickness of cushion also changes with body condition score, and this data suggest that thin cows may lead to lame cows!
