Lameness in dairy cows: impact on cow health, milk yield and fertility

Healthy locomotion is essential for cow health and the performance of the dairy herd. A dairy cow walks many meters every day between the cubicle, the feed fence, and the milking robot. When hooves are not maintained proactively, the load on the hooves can become unbalanced. This may lead to pain, an abnormal walking pattern, and eventually lameness. Hoof care is therefore a key part of cow health management. It helps restore the natural shape of the hoof, distribute pressure more evenly and prevent hoof disorders. In doing so, it directly supports dairy cow health and productivity.

Hoof problems rarely arise suddenly. In many cases, subtle signals can already be seen days or even weeks before a cow becomes clearly lame. Early recognition is therefore an essential part of good cow health management and directly contributes to overall cow health. Those who only focus on visible lameness are often too late. The real challenge lies in recognizing subtle changes in behavior and performance.

Hoof health starts in the barn. The way dairy cows are housed has a direct impact on cow health, welfare, and the performance of the dairy herd. Within good herd health management, housing is therefore an essential part of overall dairy cow health. When cows experience insufficient comfort or have to move in a contaminated environment, the risk of hoof disorders increases. This not only affects locomotion, but also has a direct impact on production, fertility, and the overall health of dairy herds. 

Grazing plays an important role in dairy farming in many regions, especially when cows return to pasture in spring. At the same time, many farms already work with automatic milking systems. For robot farmers, combining grazing with a milking robot often raises a fundamental question: does grazing become a challenge, or can it turn into an opportunity?

In a robotic milking system, cows decide for themselves when to be milked, following their own rhythm throughout the day. Introducing grazing changes cow motivation and movement, which can influence how often cows visit the robot. This is why grazing and robotic milking are often seen as a difficult combination.

In practice, grazing can work well with a milking robot under the right conditions. Understanding how cows balance eating, resting and milking, and how grazing influences that balance, is key to maintaining milk production, cow health and smooth farm operations during the grazing season.

For more than three decades, robotic milking has changed the way dairy farms operate. What began as an idea to reduce physical labour has grown into a smart system that supports farmers, cows, and long-term farm performance.

Early robotic systems were designed to solve one key challenge: how to milk cows safely and consistently without direct human involvement. Over time, these systems developed into reliable, data-driven tools that support free cow traffic, flexible working hours, and healthier herds.

Today, robotic milking is not only about efficiency. It is about creating a barn environment where cows can follow their natural rhythm, farmers gain insight from the data, and daily work becomes more sustainable and future-proof.

Automatic milking technology has transformed dairy farming, but the journey is far from finished at Lely. The continuous development of the automatic milking system is at the heart of our innovation strategy. The Lely Astronaut continues to evolve year after year, driven by new knowledge, new technology and the daily challenges on farms. On the outside, the Lely Astronaut may look similar, but on the inside improvements are made every single year to keep our solution sustainable, profitable and enjoyable to work with. This proves that robotic milking is not a fixed product, but a continuously developing solution built to support farmers today and in the future.