Impacting all segments of the beef industry, lameness continues to be an important issue in feedlot cattle. It's an animal-welfare concern as well as a health issue, and it is often more prevalent than beef producers recognize.

The focus of Step-Up is on education, especially in areas where lameness is not commonly considered to be prevalent. It provides resource materials focused on lameness scoring and lesion identification, as well as industry-leading lameness prevention, management and treatment protocols.

A cornerstone of the program is the introduction of a new four-point locomotion scoring system specifically developed for beef cattle. Locomotion scoring is based on the observation of cattle walking (gait), with emphasis on head bob and stride length. The system uses a simple 0 to 3 scale to assess the severity of lameness in beef cattle (0 = normal; 1 = mild lameness; 2 = moderate lameness; 3 = severe lameness).

To learn more about locomotion scoring beef cattle, visit the Step-Up video library on zinpro.com. Educational posters for beef cattle locomotion scoring and lesion identification are available for request from the company.  

—From Zinpro Corp. news release