The digital cushion and its role in lameness

The last few years has seen us add significantly to our knowledge surrounding the digital cushion in the cow’s claw (also known as the fat pad) and its role in lameness prevention in dairy cattle. The ‘do thin cows go lame or lame cows go thin’ quandary was addressed a few years ago with research by the University of Nottingham group in the UK demonstrating that maintaining body condition score (BCS) has an important role to play in preventing lameness. Cows with a BCS<2 were significa