In-silico model of lifetime trajectories of dairy cows
Commonly used acronym: INSILICOW
Scope of the method
- Animal health
- Basic Research
- Translational - Applied Research
- In silico
Description
- dairy cow
- white-box model
- lifetime trajectory
- reproduction
- milk yield
- modelling
- simulation
- Animal science
- statistical modelling
This white-box model uses energy partitioning throughout the lifetime of dairy animals (growth, lactation, gestation, ...) to simulate reproduction performance, lifetime length, production performance etc. The method is developed by dr. Olivier Martin at INRAE, MoSAR, Paris.
You need the model codes to work with them.
- History of use
- Published in peer reviewed journal
Pros, cons & Future potential
- Replaces costly animal trials,
- Accurate outcomes if you put the right parameters in.
Parameter choice and identifiability
Further extensions and improvements are in constant course of development
Simulation studies in dairy cows, for example for studying resilience and perturbations in milk yield, or reproduction progesterone profiles
References, associated documents and other information
Adriaens I., Martin O., Saeys W., De Ketelaere B., Friggens N.C., Aernouts B. (2019). Validation of a novel milk progesterone-based tool to monitor luteolysis in dairy cows. Timing of the alerts and robustness against missing values. JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE, 102 (12), 11491-11503 doi:doi.org/10.1101/526095.
Martin O, Blavy P, Derks M, Friggens NC, Blanc F. (2019) Coupling a reproductive function model to a productive function model to simulate lifetime performance in dairy cows. Animal. 13(3):570-579.