Functional length of life (FULL) - a better metric of dairy cow longevity
Project overview
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Short summary
The goal of this project is to develop FULL – Functional Length of Life in dairy cows – a metric that combines longevity with how well the cow functions in her environment, that can be used to assess the quality of life of dairy cows.
We will use data on events that a dairy cow experiences during her lifetime that affect her well-being (positively or negatively), quantify these effects in terms of magnitude and duration, and combine this information algebraically with her lifespan to create FULL.
We will draw on expert knowledge to identify relevant events and their effects, and apply the resulting function to data from Swedish dairy herds to investigate the distributional properties of FULL and to cross-validate the measure.
We expect to develop a metric that captures a cow’s length of life but adjusts it for estimated welfare cquality, providing a more accurate estimate of a cow’s functional length of life than longevity alone.
We also expect to identify systematic factors associated with FULL that can be used to explain variation in FULL, as well as how FULL relates to the economic performance of dairy farms.
This project responds to expressed needs from Swedish dairy farmers and therefore has strong potential for practical implementation, with significant impact on both animal welfare and productivity.
