Day 020 - 28 Jul 94 - Page 39


     
     1        A.  Dairy cows.
 
     2   Q.   Because of their job, their position?
              A.  Yes, there are a lot of reasons for lameness.
     3
         Q.   Right.
     4        A.  I am not totally clear what your question is.
 
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do dairy cattle, by reason of being dairy
              cattle, suffer particularly from lameness?
     6        A.  Yes, there are certain lameness diseases associated
              with dairy production more than suckler cows, for example,
     7        so yes.
 
     8   MR. MORRIS:  I will not go through -- I have a list of diseases
              here.
     9
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will break there and come back at 2
    10        o'clock.
 
    11                         (Short Adjournment)
 
    12                                                     2.00 p.m..
 
    13   MR. MORRIS:  Just to continue with dairy cattle.
 
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You were asking about diseases to which
              dairy cattle might be particularly vulnerable.  You dealt
    15        with lameness, mastitis and lameness.
 
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  I believe lameness is also especially
              prevalent amongst dairy cows because of when they are
    17        cooped up throughout the winter in sheds?
              A.  If the conditions under foot are particularly damp,
    18        yes, and they are on concrete, and if they are exposed, if
              the hoofs are exposed to silage effluent, for example,
    19        yes, these things can help to predispose or precipitate
              lameness.
    20
         Q.   Is that a general problem in the dairy industry?
    21        A.  Lameness is a general problem which, I would suspect,
              most herds have some lameness in them at any given point
    22        in time.
 
    23   Q.   Is partly the problem of lameness that is prevalent in the
              dairy industry because of the cubicles generally are too
    24        small for a cow's natural movement that they are kept in
              over winter?
    25        A.  They can move outside those cubicles, so cubicles do
              not actually confine them to no movement. 
    26 
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Which cubicles do you think Mr. Morris is 
    27        referring to?  Ones they go in to be milked or ones which
              they are held in for significant periods or what?
    28        A.  In the winter time cows are housed indoors.  They have
              an area where they have a lying area, which is in the form
    29        of a cubicle in that it has partitions.  They can come out
              of there and then go to feed, and they are driven out of
    30        that whole area to go to the milking parlour.  So I was
              considering the holding cubicles.

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