New technology detects lameness in cattle--Tiffany Sanders

Lameness in dairy cattle have hurt the industry for many years and has been one of the main reasons why the cows are culled. However, there is not a new device developed by researchers at UD and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) to help detect the very painful condition of lameness in cattle. The device is called the StepMetrix and is sold to dairy farms in the United States and also in Europe and sold by the farm equipment company BouMatic. The system uses a computerized system of force plates that are installed on the ground outside the where the cows are housed. Then the cows are fitted with electronic sensors that can be read by the system.

“Every time that a cow walks over the force plates on her way to milking, the plates detect the forces up and down each of the legs,” Dyer says. “It looks at each individual foot as well as the left half of the cow versus the right, the front versus the back.”

The software analyzes the data collected by the force of the plates and then the information comes up with the lameness index for each animal and then tells if each cow is sound or lame.
This technology will help farmers in the long run because they will be able to determine if they are lame sooner just because on the way the cows walk.