Jeremy Casey | DairyNZ

Ashburton farmer Jeremy Casey says the best thing about the Healthy Hoof programme was getting all the staff together to help them understand lameness.

"Before starting the Healthy Hoof programme I thought our lameness issues were coming from our races, but after sitting down with our Healthy Hoof trainer it became apparent that our staff needed to make changes to their on-farm behaviours."

Jeremy was heavily involved with Dexcel in 2007 when Charlotte Glass, a DairyNZ developer, approached him to see if he was interested in becoming a pilot farm for the Healthy Hoof programme.

"I decided to join the programme as I saw it as a proactive approach to lameness on-farm. Anything that can help make the farm more productive I am willing to give a go and I thought it would be good training for our staff members."

Lameness is a tricky issue but the Healthy Hoof programme is helpful for teaching staff and finding solutions for individual farms. Jeremy says the programme can be used in a positive way to keep staff feeling valued, as they are taking on responsibility for the cows' hooves.

"On our farm we always have one staff member with sole responsibility for lameness. This person is constantly reporting back to the owners and is well trained in lameness prevention."

Jeremy ensures when new staff members arrive on-farm, they too are run through the Healthy Hoof programme. The young staff members found the programme resources very easy to learn from.

"The posters and charts were the most valuable learning resource. We put the charts up in the farm dairy to remind the staff daily of the Healthy Hoof programme and what they learnt from it."

Jeremy says that now when they have lameness issues, they refer to the Healthy Hoof resources and very rarely call the vet out to assist, which over time has saved the business a lot of money.

Jeremy's advice to anyone having lameness issues is to give the Healthy Hoof programme a go. "The programme is a beneficial tool for staff training and it achieves the ultimate - reduces lameness within the herds."

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