Hoof health management has been in the spotlight in recent years, but with the launch of the UK Dairy Cattle Welfare Strategy, it’s even more in focus.
“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 systems like VetIMPRESS can play a hugely positive role.
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.
A secure and reliable data reporting and management platform, VetIMPRESS combines data from a range of external sources such as government and farm service providers, with on-farm information providing powerful insights for vets to deliver proactive and timely evidence-based advice.
Consolidating these insights allows vets to give the best guidance to clients, spot health problems early and decide on the best treatment plans.
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.
Sean Riches, product and solutions manager for farm animals (Vetoquinol), says platforms like VetIMPRESS enable the dairy industry to make real progress when it comes to identifying where action is required to enhance animal health and productivity.
“There have been several initiatives recently, including the UK Dairy Cattle Welfare Strategy, which are set to raise the profile and significance of dairy health,” says Sean.
“VetIMPRESS allows the industry to demonstrate progress against these initiatives.
“With all the data vets and farmers need on one platform, analysing animal health is easy.”
Easier analysis of animal health 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.”
“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.”
