Simon Archer and others comment: We would like to thank Mr Blowey for his constructive response to our open access paper; we entirely agree that it would be preferable to trim each individual cow's foot optimally. The minimum claw lengths we presented incorporate expected variation, and are intended as a guide that is applicable to most cows. The minimum values for sole thickness provided, and hence derived claw length, allow operators to use claw lengths greater than our recommendations, yet we would not advocate shorter lengths. We fear that Mr Blowey may have misinterpreted our minimum figures as ‘target’ or ‘average’ values; this was not our intention …