Distal limb angle analysis

The determined distal limb angles were evaluated; maximal retraction angles larger than zero degrees and maximal protraction angles smaller than zero degrees were excluded. Visualization and estimation of the confidence intervals was performed in the same manner as described for the temporal parameters.

The stride segmented distal limb angle curves were linear interpolated to 100 samples to ensure that all curves were of the same length, allowing comparison between and within cows since the cows were walking in their own chosen pace. The following analysis steps were performed over all cows and steps for every limb separately: i) the differences between all the curves was calculated and the curve with the least difference is further called the most typical curve, ii) the median curve and median absolute deviation (MAD), mean claw-on timing and mean claw-off timing were calculated, and iii) the curves were depicted on a scale from zero to 100; where zero indicated the start of the stride (first claw-on moment) and 100 the end of the stride (next claw-on moment).