Keeping the feet of dairy cows in excellent condition is an essential practice in today’s modern dairy herd. Hoof trimming is a specialized skill that most dairy producers hire outside specialists to perform. While horse owners call the farrier to trim and shoe horses, dairy producers call the hoof trimmer to make sure their cows feet are healthy and well manicured.

The hooves of dairy cows are equivalent to our fingernails. They grow continually and like our fingernails, need regular maintenance to perform well. A mature cow weighs between 1,100 and 1,500 lbs and when she walks, that weight is distributed on 3 hoofs, each carrying 400 lbs or more on a surface are about the size of a slice of bread. Have one step on your toe and that fact becomes immediately apparent!

If her hoof is not square to the floor, all that weight is distributed to an even smaller surface area and lameness can develop. When it hurts a cow to walk, her nutrition will be thrown off because it is less painful laying in her stall than getting up to eat and drink. This reduces the amount of milk she can produce and impacts her capacity to become pregnant again. Experts have calculated that a lame cow costs a dairy producer between $300 and $800 per cow in lost milk production. Compare this to the $10 to $15 hoof trimmers charge to trim a cow’s feet and the decision to maintain foot health is a no-brainer.

Proper hoof health on a dairy farm starts with the use of regular foot baths that are maintained for cows to walk through several times a week. These foot baths help control hairy foot warts, an infectious disease of the hoof. Commonly, the hoof trimmer will work on a cow twice a year. Once at 120 days in milk (dairy lingo for number of days since a cow has given birth) and at dry-off, or two months before she is scheduled to freshen.

If you know what to look for, you probably have seen hoof-trimmers on their way to work. The tell-tale sign is the pickup truck pulling their portable hoof trimming table. Once at the farm, the hoof trimmer sets up this contraption in a part of the barn where cows will be sorted for hoof trimming. Cows enter through a gate which keeps them from moving back and forth. Large straps are tightened around the cow’s body, holding her firmly against the table side of the chute so she cannot hurt herself or the trimmer. The entire table is pivoted so that the cow lays on her side with her feet at a comfortable working height for the hoof trimmer. Her legs are restrained with straps during the delicate trimming process.

The hoof trimmer’s tool box will contain special knives, grinders, trimming discs, hoof nippers, topical treatments, wraps and special hoof-shaped blocks that can be glued to hoofs that need an extreme make-over. Hoof trimmers provide valuable information to dairy producers about the nutrition of the herd or condition of floors and alleys from what they discover in hooves. This highly skilled person has dirty job that requires them to work in whatever the temperature is outside. It is also one of the best paying jobs in the dairy industry.