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.