Lely Meteor* is a hoof health approach for dairy farms composed of three aspects: Farm Management Support, specific aids and care products. Lely Meteor stands for striking the right balance between these three areas. The Lely Meteor hoof health approach spans the entire farm to include dairy cattle, dry cattle and calves
Management, Cow health
Hoof health condition on a farm is often overestimated by the dairy farmer; there are more hoof health problems than he or she thinks. Research has been done on this underestimation, for example in New Zealand (Jessica Fabian, 2012). This research shows that only 25% of hoof diseases are spotted by dairy farmers (in comparison with the actual amount).
Such differences can arise from the following:
• Institutional blindness: getting used to less-mobile cows.
• Changing the boundaries and accepting that hoof health is not optimal.
• Insufficient knowledge of hoof health.
• No insight into the direct or indirect effects.
• Postponing hoof treatment, given that this is not always pleasant work.
• No consistent approach to hoof health.
• Hoof health suffers from this lack of awareness as a result of reactive intervention, incomplete intervention, or no intervention at all. Awareness and solid programmes are a necessity for opening dairy farmers’ and hoof-care specialists’ eyes to this issue.
Farm Management Support
Within Lely Meteor, Farm Management Support (FMS) plays a key role when it comes to knowledge, expertise and monitoring. The unique hoof health approach has to be explained and guided along to achieve the desired results. Explanations and guidance are crucial here, both for the dairy farmer and the hoof-care specialist.
Zero-tolerance policy
This policy lays the emphasis on the fact that Lely Meteor aims to detect and treat hoof disease at the earliest possible stage. Early detection is only possible based on a good overview and knowledge of hoof health on the dairy farm. The hooves of all livestock are evaluated in detail, with the smallest anomaly being corrected at an early stage.
Digital dermatitis (Mortellaro)
Digital dermatitis is a ’strawberry-like’ inflammation that is very painful for the cow. The bacteria (Treponema in manure) invade the dermis and the condition is difficult to treat. Often digital dermatitis is seen in combination with interdigital dermatitis or laminitis.
Treatment
Within Lely Meteor, the biggest effect is seen on digital dermatitis; however it requires a comprehensive and zero-tolerance approach. What does this look like in practice? In the first round each individual cow is trimmed, scored and treated. In order to do this properly, washing and opening the claw is essential, as only then do the smallest infections become visible. After treatment, recording the result is important in order to show in the next round what the score and treatment were.
Results and experiences
Thanks to the complete and zero-tolerance approach, the results are clearly visible. In figure 2 we see an example of a severe digital dermatitis inflammation. After trimming this claw, washing, treating with Lely Meteor Balm and bandaging, the result is shown in the picture on the right: a clean and healed hoof free from digital dermatitis.
Farm Management: tips and tricks
As explained previously, Lely Meteor is about the global approach. It focuses not only on lactating cows but also on young stock and dry cows. In addition, this approach also considers all factors that affect hoof health: from floor to cubicle and from roughage to management. Therefore it is of great importance to go through all of these aspects on a farm - not just by a checklist, but also by making them visible to the farmer and hoof trimmer.
For example, if a cow is seen ‘tap dancing’, take a short video. This cow is uncomfortable, in pain, not lying down and is therefore an attention cow. Another example is to show evidence. Take one cow and treat her with the Lely Meteor approach. After a week the difference can be seen. In the end, seeing is believing.
As mentioned before, the Farm Management Advisor plays a vital role as this person can oversee the whole farm and advise the farmer and hoof trimmer from a fresh point of view.
Before starting up Lely Meteor, all of the people involved, the Farm Management Advisor, salesmen, and the hoof trimmer, must be trained and certified. Availability per country may differ. On the various Lely websites you can find more information, videos and testimonials.
Lely Farm Management Support
*Please note that Lely Meteor is only available in The Netherlands, Germany and France at the time of writing. Other countries will follow shortly.
