caa a22 4500 388060700 CHVBK 20180307125119.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199804 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S1357729800009413 doi S1357729800009413 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S1357729800009413 The economic value of somatic cell count payment schemes for UK dairy cattle breeding programmes [Elektronische Daten] Predicted transmitting abilities for somatic cell counts (SCC) are available in the United Kingdom and there is a direct economic benefit attached to reducing SCC as the milk payment schemes include a penalty for high SCC levels in bulk tank samples and sometimes a premium for low SCC. The aim of the present study was to establish the economic importance of bulls' breeding values for SCC in relation to this payment scheme for SCC. To do this, an empirical method was developed using 645071 individual cow SCC and milk yield test-day records from 358 herds. The economic value was calculated by (i) decreasing all individual cow records by 0·01 and comparing the average penalty with the current average penalty, and (ii) taking the derivative of a Gompertz function describing the within-herd penalty per cow as a function of the average within-herd 3-month rolling geometric mean SCC. Mean milk test-day yield and average test-day SCC were 20·4 kg and 262 kcount per ml respectively with, on average, 83 cows tested each day. In the current situation the average penalty paid was 0·54, 0·18 and 3·2 pence per litre depending on whether an England and Wales, Scottish or future payment scheme was used, respectively. Across the population, the economic values per 0·01 decrease in SCC were £1·04, £0·54 and £6·03 per cow per year for these three payments schemes respectively. However these economic values depend strongly on the mean SCC. Herds have different means and as the future population mean is difficult to predict, it is suggested that for herds with the majority of their bulk tank samples in penalty bands 1, 2 or 3+ (average SCC of <150, 150 to 250 and 250+) the economic values are £0, £0·50, and £15 per cow per year per 0·01 reduction in SCC, respectively, until additional benefits have been quantified. Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998 breeding programmes nationallicence dairy cattle nationallicence economics nationallicence somatic cell count nationallicence Veerkamp R. F. Genetics and Behavioural Sciences Dept, SAC Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG Stott A. W. Agricultural and Rural Economics, Scottish Agricultural College, King Street, Aberdeen AB9 1UD Hill W. G. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT Brotherstone S. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/2(1998-04), 293-298 1357-7298 66:2<293 1998 66 ASC https://doi.org/10.1017/S1357729800009413 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1357729800009413 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Veerkamp R. F. Genetics and Behavioural Sciences Dept, SAC Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Stott A. W. Agricultural and Rural Economics, Scottish Agricultural College, King Street, Aberdeen AB9 1UD NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hill W. G. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Brotherstone S. Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/2(1998-04), 293-298 1357-7298 66:2<293 1998 66 ASC CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge