Nesikep
Well-known member
I've been doing a lot of spreadsheet work with the data I have on my herd, and one is to try to put a number on how valuable a cow is in the herd... it's not perfect yet, as I have other criteria I have to add, so for now it's based solely on how many calves a cow (and her progeny) have had
So... A cow's total score is partly based on how many calves she's had, and partly based on the score her offspring have had...
Now, how would you make that split... her score contributes 40/50/60% of her overall score?
The second problem is how much more desirable is it to have cows that live to have many calves... so, I found a linear (1:1) score doesn't favour the long lived cows at all, so I used a quadratic (squared, 1=1, 2=4, 4=16) formula, which favours them a bit much... I settled for an inbetween... using the number of calves she's had, raised to the power of 1.4, which yields something like 1=1, 5=10, 10=25, and 15=44. I find this give enough importance to long lived cows.
So in the spreadsheet, one column is for a cows score, the next is for the scores of her offspring, added up, the next column is for her total score (her score * 40% + her offspring's score * 60%, for example), to get her total score... then I have a final column that scales it so the highest score is 100
I will have to add some modifiers so that relative calf weight, attitude, and problematics could affect it... but that'll be later.
If you guys use spreadsheets for your herd, try what I have here (If you want I'll post instructions on how to get the formulas to work for Microsoft Excel) and see how the numbers look to you, especially on valuing older cows... Until a cow is 6 years old or so, she's only paying off her replacement cost and feed, only after that does she stand a chance to make you money, thus, a 16-calf cow is indeed 4 times more valuable in the herd than one that'll only make 4
Anyhow, i'm all ears for input on this
So... A cow's total score is partly based on how many calves she's had, and partly based on the score her offspring have had...
Now, how would you make that split... her score contributes 40/50/60% of her overall score?
The second problem is how much more desirable is it to have cows that live to have many calves... so, I found a linear (1:1) score doesn't favour the long lived cows at all, so I used a quadratic (squared, 1=1, 2=4, 4=16) formula, which favours them a bit much... I settled for an inbetween... using the number of calves she's had, raised to the power of 1.4, which yields something like 1=1, 5=10, 10=25, and 15=44. I find this give enough importance to long lived cows.
So in the spreadsheet, one column is for a cows score, the next is for the scores of her offspring, added up, the next column is for her total score (her score * 40% + her offspring's score * 60%, for example), to get her total score... then I have a final column that scales it so the highest score is 100
I will have to add some modifiers so that relative calf weight, attitude, and problematics could affect it... but that'll be later.
If you guys use spreadsheets for your herd, try what I have here (If you want I'll post instructions on how to get the formulas to work for Microsoft Excel) and see how the numbers look to you, especially on valuing older cows... Until a cow is 6 years old or so, she's only paying off her replacement cost and feed, only after that does she stand a chance to make you money, thus, a 16-calf cow is indeed 4 times more valuable in the herd than one that'll only make 4
Anyhow, i'm all ears for input on this