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Rounding Dairy Herd Improvement Milk Weights to the Nearest Pound

Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850

ABSTRACT

Supervisors in the Northeast United States currently report milk weights on test day to the tenth of a pound on only 39.9% of the cows tested. Of the remaining cows, 25.4% are reported to the fourth pound, 24.8% to the half pound, and 9.9% to the full pound. Corresponding for cows on owner sampler test are 45.7, 9.0, 24.3, and 21.0%.

Reporting Dairy Herd Improvement milk weights to full pounds rather than tenths of pounds increases the standard deviation of the difference of estimated and actual 305-day milk production by 1.7% for twice-a-day collection schemes and 2.6% for once-a-day collection schemes. A bias of approximately +18 kg would occur for twice and once-a-day collection schemes regardless of the number of test days in a lactation. The maximum bias that could occur due to rounding to the nearest full pound would be 138 kg in a 305-day lactation.