The Ontario Dairy Hoof Health Project

Why the Concern about Hoof Health?

Lameness is one of most common primary reasons that cows are culled from Ontario dairy herds. In addition, many cows that are culled for reproductive failure have failed to become pregnant because they are lame. Lameness is also an indirect cause of culling for other infectious diseases such as mastitis, by weakening the immune system.

What Is The Ontario Dairy Hoof Health Project?

Because of the increasing concern about lameness in our dairy herds, participating members of the Ontario Hoof Trimmers Guild (OHTG), Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) and the Agricultural Adaptation Council have combined resources in this project. Our main goal is to tackle the number one lameness-causing lesion in Ontario and Canada which is digital dermatitis. This project allows hoof trimmers to record hoof health electronically in a standardized format which can be combined with the database developed by the Alberta Dairy Hoof Health Project.

What We Need From You

For this project to be successful, we need your permission to share the hoof health records that your hoof trimmer collects. We’d also like your permission to access your DHI records so we can evaluate relationships between hoof lesions, genetics and production and reproduction measures.

Click here to learn more about this project...

Click here for images of the Training Session