ABSTRACT

An estimate of the producing ability of cattle, known as Most Probable Producing Ability (MPPA) is an important measure, which provides an estimate of future productivity of a dairy animal as the basis of the past productivity (in term of repeatability of the trait and the number of records). At present, no tool seems to be available for computing MPPA online. In this paper, a Web enabled decision support system is proposed for online computation of MPPA using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and ASP.NET 2.0 technology with C#.NET software engineering tools. The same technology is used for developing a searchable database on herd strength management. This software is useful for farm managers in screening of dairy livestock animals for culling and selection of superior animals, which can be used for breeding programs with genetically superior proven sires to produce next crop of young bulls for progeny testing.