DairyTrader®: A cull dairy cow price estimation app to help farmer decision-making
PI: Guilherme Rosa

Rosa is a professor of animal and dairy sciences at UW–Madison. He teaches courses and develops research on statistical and computational tools to analyze livestock data including beef and dairy cattle, swine, and poultry.
Culling decisions, a key component of successful dairy farm, are a frequently faced challenge for many dairy farmers. In addition to involuntary culling of cows due to illness, injury, or infertility, farmers need to decide when and which cows should be removed from their herd and replaced by heifers of superior genetic merit. Approximately two-thirds of cull dairy cows are sold through live auctions and many farmers only learn about the price of their cow after it has been marketed. As an additional tool to help farmers with their decision making, this project is developing an app (called Dairy Trader®). Dairy Trader® will provide the prices a farmer should expect to be paid for their cull cows in real-time. Joao Dorea and Ligia Moreira are collaborating on this research. This project aligns to Dairy Task Force 2.0 recommendation #34 and #37 (‘Create an app for dairy producers and associates on major topics’ and ‘Understanding marketing tools available’).