The importance of lameness in dairy cattle in UK in terms of its economic consequences and welfare considerations is well documented (Russel and others, 1982). While such epidemiological work has identified factors of importance in the aetiology of the various conditions associated with lameness it has been less successful in apportioning their relative importance, particularly for those conditions affecting the hoof. A series of experiments has been conducted at the West of Scotland College over the period 1983 to 1989 mainly investigating the relationship of nutrition and lameness. In one of these Manson and Leaver (1988) found a significant difference in the prevalence of lameness between two groups of cattle fed complete diets containing either 16.1 or 19.8% crude protein. They also found a significant increase in mean locomotion score (LS) and commented that further studies were needed to understand the dietary processes by which the hoof of the cow was predisposed to such problems.

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the influence of the type of protein source in the concentrate upon the locomotion of the cows, the incidence and prevalence of lameness and finally on hoof hardness, shape, growth and wear.