Pen Moves affecting Parlor Milk

Pen Moves affecting Parlor Milk

When a cow gets moved from one pen to another pen, does this "move event" affect milk production?


Often, this analysis only looks at the animals that moved, and not the “negative controls” or similar animals that did not move. This report – Milk response after moves - https://bovisync.farm/report/6QVLVX - can be used to see how the animals that moved responded versus the animals that did not move in the same DIM window. This report will only return values for farms that utilize parlor records/data and not single test day values.

Animals that were moved within a 10-day DIM window are compared to animals that were not moved in the same DIM window. Milk values are the difference between the 7-day average daily milk yield (parlor milk avg) following the 10-day window and the 7-day average daily milk yield prior to the window. This accomplishes two main objectives. It mitigates the effect of the transient drop in milk due to the act of moving the cow while determining whether there is a sustained deviation from similar cows which were not moved.

In the report, there are two main item types – “Milkxx_yy” and “Movexx_yy”. Milk refers to the difference in the 7-day average daily milk yield from “yy to yy+7 DIM” compared to “xx-7 to xx DIM”. Move refers to whether or not a cow was moved between the DIM “xx” and “yy”. If the cow was moved, she receives a value of “1”. If the cow was not moved, she receives a “0”. And, if the cow has not reached a DIM of “yy”, the value is blank or “null”.

Here is a brief video showing how to use this report - https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cr6q2hVX7qm.

Figure 1 - move between 30 & 40 DIM


Figure 2 - move between 100 & 110 DIM
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