Lactation Curves

Image that a group of fresh cows increase milk yield in their 4th week of lactation by 1kg. Traditional wisdom says that transition management must have improved.

Now imagine the average production of the same herd has risen by 2kg, or that the recent fresh cows have an unusually high genetic merit, or that they have consistently been above average in previous lactations.

Are fresh cows now underperforming?

Asking the Right Questions

• Which herds should expect the most, or least return for investment in genetic merit?

• What is the optimal stocking rate for each barn?

• Is a herd’s replacement strategy negatively affecting welfare, production, or economics?

• Are there other unidentified effects that are masking a herd, group, or cow’s true potential?

This extremely ambitious project uses truly big data from hundreds of herds, many millions of milk records, advanced modelling techniques and enterprise-scale cloud computing infrastructure to tease apart various effects on milk production. The resulting decision support tools identify missed opportunity costs & allow farmers & advisors to predict & monitor the outcome of management decisions.