Comparison of statistical models to estimate daily milk yield in single milking testing schemes

Different statistical models were compared to estimate daily milk yield from morning or evening milking test results. The experiment was conducted on 14 family farms with 325 recorded cows. The amount of explained variance was higher for models including the effects of partial milk yield, the interval between successive milking, the interaction between partial milk yield and the milking interval and the farm (R2 = 0.976 for AM, R2 = 0.956 for PM) than for models including partial milk yield effect only (R2 = 0.957 for AM, R2 = 0.937 for PM). Estimates of daily milk yield from linear models were more accurate than those obtained by doubling single milking weights. The results show that more complex model gives the best fit to the data. Differences between models according to determination and correlation coefficient were minor. Further investigations on larger sets of data are needed to draw more general conclusion