The walking procedure of the cattle on a paddy field before spring plowing was captured by the high-speed photography. The properties of the paddy soil used for tests were examined. The changes of the joint angles and the orientations of all limbs were analyzed, and then the characteristics of the cattle during walking on paddy field were discussed. The changes of the fore limb were more prominent compared with the hind limb, moreover, the landing place of the hind limb were farther than the fore limb, which made the hind limb have a larger movement space to prevent the interference between fore limb and hind limb while the strides were increased. The movement of elbow joint and knee joint were very obvious after limb left the ground, the movements of wrist joint and ankle joint were steady to reduce the impact of the ground before limb touched down the ground. The results would provide some theoretical and practical references for bionic design for improving the reasonable motion of the walking mechanisms on soft ground. This work may provide the basic theory in developing cattle-like robot in structural design. Besides, it provides an important reference to study the other bionic robots.