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Barriers to Improving Mobility - The 2026 Stride Survey

Thank you for opening our survey.

We want to understand if mobility is improving in UK herds and what is preventing improvements happening more quickly. We need your help and you could win a pair of Apple Airpods.

Reducing the incidence of poor mobility and poor hoof health will benefit the whole industry. This survey aims to identify the opinions of dairy farmers to cow mobility and their approach to managing the herd to prevent lameness. These responses will help the whole industry to find practical and sustainable solutions to support producers.

If you complete the survey you will have the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 pairs of Apple Airpods. You can also opt to receive a free copy of the survey results and regular free copies of CowManagement magazine.

Stride is an industry-wide not-for-profit initiative committed to helping drive improvements in dairy cow mobility. The partners in the initiative are Ceva, HerdVision, Hoofcount, IVC Farm Vets, Kersia, Neogen, NoBACZ Healthcare and Teemore Engineering in association with CowManagement magazine.

Please spare a few minutes to complete the survey which runs until 30th April. The draw will be made in early May and all prize winners will be notified immediately.
1.Which age group do you fall into? (please select one answer)(Required.)
2.How many cows are in your herd (milking and dry)? (please select one answer)(Required.)
3.What is your herd's calving pattern? (please select one answer)(Required.)
4.On average, how many weeks a year do your cows spend at grazing? (please select one answer)(Required.)
5.Please tell us how your milking herd is housed. (please select all that apply)(Required.)
6.What is the average yield per cow in litres per lactation? (please select one answer)(Required.)
7.What is your job role? (please select one answer)(Required.)
8.Who has primary responsibility in your farm team for cows' foot health and mobility on your farm? (please select one answer)(Required.)
9.Who else is involved with reducing lameness in your herd? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
10.How significant is the problem of lameness in your milking herd? (please select one answer)(Required.)
11.Is lameness reducing production and affecting profitability on your farm? (please select one answer)(Required.)
12.What do you believe is the average cost per case of lameness on your farm including time, treatment and lost production? (please select one answer)(Required.)
13.Are you confident in your knowledge of the practical steps or effecitve measures to reduce lameness in your herd? (please select one answer)(Required.)
14.Do you have any of the following? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
15.When do you trim the feet of your milking herd? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
16.When do you trim the feet of your in-calf heifers? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
17.When do you trim the feet of your youngstock? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
18.Tell us about how often you footbath animals? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
Weekly or more often
Less than weekly and up to 3 times per month
Monthly
Less frequently
Never
Other
Milking herd
Dry cows
In-calf heifers
Youngstock
19.How important is lameness when making culling decisions? (please select one answer)(Required.)
20.Which of the following treatments do you use or does your vet prescribe for lame cows? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
21.Which cows do you treat with a NSAID/painkiller? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
22.Which animals on your farm are mobility scored and how frequently (please tick as many as appropriate)(Required.)
More frequently than monthly
Monthly
Quarterly
Annually
Never
Other
Milking cows
Dry cows
Youngstock
23.Who undertakes the mobility scoring? (please select one answer)(Required.)
24.How easy do you think it would be to reduce lameness in your herd? (please select one answer)(Required.)
25.To what extent do you agree with this sentence? "The level of lameness will decrease in my herd in the next 12 months" (please select one answer)(Required.)
26.How high a priority is improving mobility? (please select one answer)(Required.)
27.Compared to these other areas of your herd management, how does reducing mobility compare?(Required.)
Higher priority than mobility
Same priority as mobility
Lower priority than mobility
Reducing mastitis
Improving fertility
Reducing age at first calving
Improving calf health
Bovine TB
Nutrition
Transition management
Infectious disease management eg BVD, IBR
28.What would encourage you to give mobility a higher priority? (please tick all that apply)(Required.)
29.What reasons limit your opportunities to further improve mobility in your milking herd? (please tick all that apply)(Required.)
30.Which is the single biggest barrier to improving mobility on your farm? (please select one option)(Required.)
31.How has your management of foot health changed over the last two years? (Please tick all that apply)(Required.)
More frequent than two years ago
No change
Less frequent than two years ago
Mobility scoring
Foot bathing
Foot trimming
Pain relief for mobility issues
32.How have you invested in improving mobility over the last two years? (Please tick all that apply)(Required.)
33.What is your expected investment in improving mobility/reducing lameness in the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months? (please select one answer)(Required.)
34.If planned investment has reduced please say why. (Please tick all that apply)
35.What would help you practically to improve mobility? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
36.Are there any new approaches to lameness that you are interested in? (please select all that apply)(Required.)
37.Please use this box to share anything else that you think is important concerning lameness in your herd.
38.Thank you for completing the survey and participating in the Stride Initiative.

We would like to keep in touch with you, keep you informed about the Stride Initiative and enter you into our free prize draw. If you are happy for us to do this please tick the boxes below and give your contact details.
39.Our partners Ceva, Herdvision, Hoofcount, IVC Farm Vets, Kersia. Neogen. NoBACZ Healthcare and Teemore Engineering would also like to contact you occasionally with promotional and other material. Only these Stride partners will have access to your data. The data will be held securely and will not be shared with any third-party organisations.