Fig 1.
Flow chart displaying the workflow of creating the final data set for modelling from the original raw data.
Out of 11,363 cows on 260 farms in the original data set, 28 farms (ncows = 1,167) did not participate in the national milk recording system and were therefore excluded. A further 1,734 cows (nfarms = 56) were housed in tie stalls and in 688 cows no assessment of the hock region was possible due to solid plaques of manure on both hocks. Missing records led to the exclusion of 454 cows (nfarms = 10). Hence, a total amount of 7,320 cows on 166 farms were included in the current study. This final data set was used for all statistical analyses. ncows: absolute number of cows; nfarms: absolute number of farms. a no assessment possible due to solid plaques of manure on both hocks.
Table 1.
Animal-level descriptive statistics (number of cows per category and ratio) of categorical variables within the final, complete cases data set for analysis (7,320 cows on 166 farms).
Table 2.
Animal level descriptive statistics of continuous variables within the final, complete cases data set for analysis (7,320 cows on 166 farms).
Table 3.
Farm-level prevalence of locomotion scores across the 166 farms (7,320 cows) in the final, complete cases data set for analysis.
Table 4.
Final partial proportional odds model results for increasing locomotion score with covariates (cow level factors and farm characteristics) adhering to the proportional odds assumption.
Table 5.
Final partial proportional odds model results for increasing locomotion score and variables (breed, observer, season) with relaxed proportional odds.