Lameness Village

What is the Lameness Village?

Lameness is one of the dairy industry’s main priorities as part of the Government’s Animal Health and Welfare Pathway (AHWP). This year we have a dedicated Lameness Village, supported by VetPartners, in Hall 2a.

This dedicated area will help farmers get to grips with managing lameness in their herd with expert support, advice and tools available.  Visitors can see some cows’ feet showing common and more unusual causes of lameness.

There will be a demonstration of how to manage these cases and a chance to discuss the practical ways to prevent them from occurring.

Demonstration times are: 10.30, 12.30, 14.30.

Lameness is an important focus as it is one of the primary health priorities for AHWP, which forms part of the Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI) scheme. The initiative will fund the cattle sectors to take national herd health to the next level.  The government is supporting improvement in these areas by delivering four programmes of funding. These include:

1. Animal Health and Welfare Review: Launched last autumn, to fund vet consultations of up to three hours to discuss animal health and welfare issues on farm. Farmers are paid £372, which could include diagnostic testing or advice on using medicines, for example.
2. Animal Health and Welfare Grants: From this year, funding will be available to cover equipment, technology, and infrastructure costs that promote health and welfare priorities.
3. Disease eradication and control programmes: Starting this year, funding will be available to support diagnostic testing and vaccination programmes.
4. Payment by results: This programme will be introduced by 2025. The focus is on supporting farmers who want to improve the lameness of their cattle further. Funding will be provided to those who show markedly improved health and welfare in their herds.