Increased genetic gain and improved profits can
accrue from using TDMY on dairy heifer at early
stage of lactation, unproductive cows would be culled
early, and there will be decreased generation interval.
In Kenya, we are yet to embrace the use of TD
observations instead of aggregated 305-day production
records despite several studies having shown
advantages (Ilatsia et al. 2006; Mostert et al. 2006). If
adopted, the country stand to gain in that ranking of
animals could change significantly as observed in
other countries (Schaeffer et al. 2000).
Breeding programs in Kenya are based primarily
on milk production, and therefore, accurate measurement
or prediction of milk yield is essential for
proving bull faster and eventually high genetic gain.
Dairy yield prediction is a current challenge, which
has been improved using different statistical methods.
Recently, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been
employed as an alternative method of milk yield
prediction.