Nessie
I agree 100% on not being able to identify the hoof issue at a young age. We are sending a first calf heifer along with her calf to the sale barn in a couple of weeks because of bad feet and poor structure. To be honest I don't know how we missed the structure her hind legs are horrible. Jacob was looking at the cattle in the cull pen and her heifer calf is in the pen. The heifer is really nice but we don't want to take a chance on propagating those feet and legs so we're shipping her out. The cow was bred back to Renoun and stuck. Again I don't know how the heck we missed those horrible hind wheels
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but we did so we are going to address it.
Your also right about poor structure having an effect on the way the hoof grows. I will also throw in another point that I feel can impact hoof structure. I feel Enviornment plays a part, in our part of the country we tend to have smaller pastures the cattle don't travel as far for forage. We don't have hills or rocky ground to wear the hoof down. In fact we have soft soil in many instances sandy soil so the cow sinks into the soil instead of being on top of it, the ground does not help in wearing the hoof down. So a cow with poor structures hoof issues are amplified due to the enviornment. I have no studies to back this up just some thoughts I've had since we have been addressing poor hoof structure in our herd. We have a cow that is 12 that is getting a little long but at 12 I am not concerned I think hers is more age related. As breeders it is our responsibility to try to eliminated bad feet from the breeding population.
Gizmom