Lactations and test-day records
Yield, fat, protein and somatic cells; the series behind a lactation is visible.
The test day is the primary record: date, 24-hour yield, fat, protein, somatic cell count, laboratory. The lactation figure sits alongside them, and the book keeps the two together for a reason: the series shows how many points the figure rests on and whether it has gaps. An entered figure cannot be checked on its own — what checks it is what lies beneath it.
Gaps and breaks in the series of test days are shown separately: a lactation resting on sparse points differs from a complete one, and whoever reads the figure is entitled to know that.
Every test day carries its recording method, expressed in ICAR enumerations rather than as free text: who took the readings (a recording organisation or the farmer), which milkings were included, how and when the sample was taken. The familiar "A4" is reassembled from these. This is what makes figures comparable: a lactation under official recording and a lactation recorded by the owner are figures of different weight, and a ranking that adds them together misleads both parties.
| Days in milk | Yield, kg | Fat, % | Protein, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 38.2 | 3.74 | 3.18 |
| 58 | 41.6 | 3.68 | 3.15 |
| 86 | gap | — | — |
| 114 | 36.9 | 3.91 | 3.24 |
The method is recorded next to the series of test days: without it "9,640 kg" from two farms are not comparable, yet they look the same.
The recording method sits next to the series of test days, and a gap in the series is called a gap. Without the method two identical figures of "9,640 kg" from different farms are not comparable, yet they look the same.
Limits
- The recording method is stored in ICAR enumerations. Records entered before those fields existed have no method, and stamping them "official recording" retrospectively would declare confirmed what nobody confirmed.
- The interval between test days is not yet checked: a complete break in the series is caught, a stretched interval is not. A named gap.
- The system does not replace the laboratory: fat and protein arrive from analysis, they are not calculated.
Other sections
See how it works
The Holstein book is open: every section can be opened and read on live data.