1	Disposal reporting and disposition of culled cows by parity and herd size
2	DHIA Termination Codes (TC)
3	Herd Disposal Reporting 40,849 herd-years from 2000-2003 Herds continuing on test ³80% test-day records passing edits ³10 test days 33% of cows in milk with final record reported during the herd year Termination code (TC) 3-7 reported for 1,043,055 cows No disposal information reported for ~20% of final records
4	Distribution of TC Annual Percentage of Cows in Milk
5	Cow Disposal Reporting 8.5 million final lactation records since 1997 2.8 million likely in progress Calving in 2004 or 2005 TC not 3-7 0.5 million sold for dairy (TC 2) To herds not participating in DHIA testing 4.0 million include disposal code (TC 3-7) 1.2 million unknown disposition Herd discontinued DHIA testing (and TC 2 not used) Disposal not recorded or ambiguous
6	Distribution of TC Percentage of reported disposals
7	Data Terminal lactation records (3,138,918) Lactations 1-5 Ending 1998 through 2004 TC 3-7 Paired with herd-year averages for the year culled Milk Fat Protein SCS and SCC
8	Models Difference from herd average (HA) for milk, fat, and protein included TC (3 vs. other) Difference from HA for SCS and SCC included TC (7 vs. other) Days open included TC (4 vs. other) and was restricted to cows with >50 DIM All included lactation number, termination year and interactions with TC
9	Yield Results Cows with TC 3 had milk yield 2% and protein yield 3% lower than HA Significantly different from other culled cows with milk yield 5% and protein yield 2% higher than HA
10	SCS Results Cows with TC 7 had SCS 21% higher than HA Significantly different from other culled cows, although those cows also had SCS higher (4%) than HA
11	Reproduction Results Cows with TC 4 had significantly higher days open (258) than other culled cows with at least 50 DIM (173 days open)
12	Disposal by Parity The most common reported reasons for culling cows in 1^st lactation were low production (TC 3) and reproductive problems (TC 4) The most common reported reason for culling cows in 3^rd or later lactation was high SCC/mastitis (TC 7)
13	Conclusions Most terminal records include an indication cow status (live/dead) Most records for culled cows include an indication of cause Reported TC are supported by cow and herd records Research aimed at using TC information to improve trait analysis is warranted