Sheep lameness: The successes and remaining challenges – Farmers Weekly

8 Sep 2019

In 2012, Farmers Weekly launched the Stamp Out Lameness campaign after sheep lameness hit the government’s radar when the Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) put forward an Opinion on Lameness in sheep. This recommended that:

1. The prevalence of lameness should be reduced to 5% or less by March 2016 and to 2% or less by March 2021.
2. The government should enforce the law dealing with the welfare of sheep using various penalties.
3. The government should work with the industry to develop a national strategy to reduce lameness in sheep.

Since then, the sheep industry has worked hard to reduce lameness to less than 5% by implementing the FAI Five-Point Plan.

As part of the next step in the campaign, Farmers Weekly wanted to find out how farmers are driving down lameness levels and what the challenges may be in meeting the 2021 target.

Therefore, we carried out a survey of 283 lowland and upland sheep farmers to find out more about lameness control being implements on UK farms.

Read on for more information.