The present invention relates to a method to automatically detect lameness of a cow, comprising the steps of: - providing position related data, acquired by a data acquisition system, of at least a part of a barrel of a cow kept for a time period within a detection area, - processing, by a processing device, the position related data of the barrel, wherein processing of the data comprises: - determining a position, or a derivative thereof, of one or more reference locations of the barrel on the basis of the position related data, - determining on the basis of the determined position, or the derivative thereof, of the one or more reference locations at least one lameness parameter indicative of the lameness of the cow.
