Digital dermatitis (DD) remains one of the most persistent and costly challenges on dairies. Effective prevention requires proper hoof immersion, consistent chemical concentration and repeatable exposure.

Rib‑Arrow Dairy uses a fully connected system – vision monitoring, activity collars, cow‑locating tools and automated footbaths – to spot changes early and respond fast.

Is this the best dairy in the world? That depends on how excellence is defined. If success is measured by scale or throughput, perhaps not. But if it is measured by how long cows remain healthy, comfortable and economically productive, this family-scale herd makes a compelling case.

Lameness continues to be one of the most persistent challenges in modern dairy herds. Herd manager Skylar Gericke, overseeing both Triple G Dairy and LegenDairy – owned by the Gingg family in Buckeye, Arizona – has firsthand experience.

I see a future where lameness rates are lower than ever before, and cows have a longer, more productive and profitable lifespan. I believe there is a day in the not-too-distant future when cows move to and from the parlor with little to no lameness.

Even though digital dermatitis is not exactly a new problem, questions still abound about proper prevention and control. Here are some tips for managing cattle and their environment that might help out your operation.

An automated footbath that could already fill, clean out and refill on its own now has a new capability – computer vision. Hoofcount’s footbath counts cow passes through the bath, dumps solution after a designated number of cows have used it, sprays out the bath and refills the bath with solution automatically.

As I’ve talked to producers, almost everyone can experience improvements – even those who were satisfied with their trim losses and health outcomes. Surprisingly, the protocol offering these results has been around for decades: the humble footbath.

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the dairy industry about the ability to benefit from an anaerobic digester and still use copper in a hoof care program.