Patent ID: 7886691

Claim:
A method of using a computer for calculating a transition monitor value (TM_ind,time) for one or more milk-producing animals at a given time period in a current lactation so as to enable its use in evaluating and optimally managing the health and productivity of said one or more milk-producing animals, using said computer to perform the following steps comprising: a) accessibly storing an animal data set comprising, for each of said one or more milk-producing animals, an amount of milk produced in the individual's previous lactation (MP_actual,305,previous), a current number of days in milk at a test day (CDIM), and an actual amount of milk produced by the individual in a current lactation for the given time period (MP_actual,time); b) accessibly storing a parameters data set comprising α, a regression coefficient intercept, and regression coefficients β associated with (MP_actual,305,previous), and ε associated with CDIM; c) for each of said one or more individual milk-producing animals, calculating an expected amount of milk produced by the individual in the current lactation for the given time period (MP_expected,time) by summing α, (β* (MP_actual,305,previous)) and (ε* CDIM); d) for each of said one or more individual milk-producing animals, calculating the transition monitor value (TM_ind,time) by subtracting the individual's expected milk production (MP_expected) time from her actual milk production (MP_actual, time); e) accessibly storing the transition monitor value for each of said one or more milk-producing animals; and, f) outputting said transition monitor values for use in evaluating and optimizing health and productivity of the one or more milk-producing animals; whereby a method is provided for calculating the expected amount of milk an individual milk-producing animal will produce in its current lactation based on the individual's actual performance in its previous lactation and on its current state, for use in calculating a transition monitor value indicative of the individual's transition performance and usable as a comparator for evaluating and optimizing the individual's health and productivity.