289
A decision support tool to estimate the economic potential of SCC hot sheet data
A DHIA hot sheet ranks cows from the highest to lowest percent of bulk tank somatic cell count (BTSCC) based on their SCC and milk yield. The objective of the Southeast Quality Milk Initiative (SQMI) Hot Sheet Dashboard was to develop a farm specific tool that producers could use to make economic decisions from DHIA hot sheet data. Producers enter production information for the top SCC cows from the DHIA hot sheet including: milk production (kg/d), and percentage of the BTSCC, and herd based inputs including: amount of milk shipped/d, BTSCC, current milk price, and bonus opportunities for milk quality. Producers also determine whether they want to discard or ship milk from a cow with a high percentage of the BTSCC. Results are displayed to show how the current BTSCC and the economic opportunity would change depending on which cows’ milk was discarded. An example scenario is presented in Table 1. The net opportunity for this herd is $24.05/d. This value represents the difference in economic opportunity when milk from the top 2 cows is being shipped compared to being discarded. The price was higher when the cows’ milk was discarded because the producer received the bonus opportunity for having a lower BTSCC. The SQMI Hot Sheet Dashboard can be beneficial to producers by allowing producers to make economic decisions from their DHIA hot sheet data. The Southeast Quality Milk Initiative project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2013-68004-20424 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Table 1: Example herd inputs and results generated from the SQMI Hot Sheet Dashboard for a 100-cow herd, shipping 3,402 kg of milk per day, with a BTSCC of 492,000 cells/mL and a current milk price of $0.41/kg, with a bonus opportunity of $0.01/kg*
|
Cow Information |
|
|
|
|
|
Milk Yield (kg) |
% BTSCC |
Decision |
BTSCC after decision (cells/mL) |
Bonus Opportunity ($/L) |
Cow #1 |
19.1 |
25.6 |
Discard |
284,376 |
.005 |
Cow #2 |
13.7 |
15.9 |
Discard |
171,708 |
.01 |
Cow #3 |
37.0 |
10.1 |
Milk |
171,708 |
.01 |
Cow #4 |
28.4 |
6.8 |
Milk |
171,708 |
.01 |
Cow #5 |
36.9 |
5.9 |
Milk |
171,708 |
.01 |
Economic Opportunity |
|||||
$24.05 /d** |
|||||
*Bonus opportunity will increase with a decrease in BTSCC depending on producer inputs.
**Net opportunity does not assume discard milk is used as milk replacer substitute.
Keywords: decision support tool, SQMI, hot sheet