Statistical modelling /Milk curve comparisons

The three intercepts and slopes are summarised below. It can be seen that there were average reductions in milk yield of 0.21 (P<0.01) and 0.18 (P<0.5) kg/day during lactation in the second and third years but there was no significant reduction in the first year. The higher intercepts in the second pair of years also indicate how higher milk yields were being obtained in early lactation in these years

These results confirm the findings in Figure 2 of Romney et al. However, taking into consideration the limitations in the data, they probably provide a more reasonable representation of the patterns that can be presented.

Longitudinal monitoring