# Presentation: 681323

## Revision and Use of Termination Codes

**PAUL VANRADEN**
**Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory**
**Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Beltsville, MD**
_**[paul](mailto:paul@aipl.arsusda.gov)**__**[@aipl.arsusda.gov](mailto:paul@aipl.arsusda.gov)**_

## Termination Code History

**Introduced in 1967 (King and McDaniel Dec 1970 DHI Letter)**
**Previous Codes:**
**0**** = Went dry or had 305 days in milk (normal).**
**1**** = No longer used (was used for missed tests)**
**2**** = Sold for dairy purposes or testing of herd discontinued; allows animals to have subsequent records in different herds. **
**	****Other "sold" or "died" codes indicate no new records are expected for animal.**

## Previous Termination Codes

**3 ****= Sold for slaughter or any reason not identified specifically (sold for low production in data from 1967-1985).**
**4**** = Sold because of reproductive problems.**
**5**** = Sold because of disease, injury, or unspecified reasons.**
**6**** = Died.**
**7**** = Sold because of mastitis or other udder problems.**

## Previous Termination Codes

**8**** = Aborted at >= 152 days from last breeding or at    ******** 200 days in milk if no breeding date.**
**9**** = Does not provide reason for termination; indicates that record not be included in calculating genetic evaluations because **
**1) lactation initiated by abortion, or **
**2) no test day between freshening and terminations dates.**

## Termination Code Problems

**Codes 3 and 5 were redundant**
**CA, NC, and WI were reporting mostly ‘5’**
**PA, and UT were reporting mostly ‘3’**
**2 is missing for many herds that stop testing**
**New edits detect these in PL data (Nov 01)**
**3 to 8 often are missing in data before 1999**
**Term codes after 305 DIM were not stored**
**1 and 9 are obsolete and could be redefined**

## Termination Codes by DRPC(data received Feb-May 2001)

| Code | CA | NC | PA | UT | WI | TX |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3 | 26% | 12% | 41% | 49% | 8% | 18% |
| 4 | 12 | 20 | 23 | 10 | 13 | 16 |
| 5 | 34 | 32 | 7 | 20 | 56 | 27 |
| 6 | 11 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 10 |
| 7 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 9 | 14 | 29 |

## Termination Code Improvements

**Codes 4 and 8 “reproductive problems” and  “aborted” will be used in fertility evaluation**
**Also obtain pregnancy status of cows?**
**Code 7: was “mastitis and udder problems”**
**Reported clinical mastitis**
**Now includes also high SCS**
**Conformational problems not included**
**Lactation Initiation code field was added**
**Implementation: April 2002**

## New Termination Codes (Apr’02)

**0 ****= Lactation in progress or ended normally (cow was not sold, did not die, and did not abort)**
**2 ****= Sold for dairy purposes or testing of herd discontinued.**
**3 ****= Sold for beef because of low production.**
**4**** = Sold for beef because of reproductive problems.**
**5**** = Sold for beef for reasons not specified.**
**6**** = Died.**

## New Termination Codes (Apr’02)

**7**** = Sold for beef because of mastitis or high somatic cell count.**
**8**** = Lactation ended with abortion at >= 152 days and < 243 days from last breeding, or aborted at >= 200 days in milk if no breeding date.**
**9**** = No longer used, replaced by lactation initiation codes (4/13/2002) so that beginning and ending conditions can both be reported in the same record.**