The objective of the present study was to understand the visiting pattern of individual cows to the milking unit in an automatic milking system with free cow traffic, and to examine the relationship between the visiting pattern and regularity of milking intervals. The data of seven days from one commercial dairy farm included 3,522 visits to an automatic milking (AM) unit by 51 cows in a free-stall barn with free cow traffic. The regularity of milking intervals was evaluated by the weekly coefficient of variation (CV) of the length of the interval between milking. The length of the intervals shortened with the increase of daily visits to the AM unit. Seventeen cows visited AM unit with low frequency in the first and second quarters, and frequent visits in the fourth quarter of interval. For cows that had this pattern of visit, the interval length was shorter and the weekly CV was smaller (P<0.05) than that of the cows that had the other pattern. It was concluded that frequent and intensive visits without milking (refusals) in the end period of the interval were needed for frequent milking and the high regularity of the milking intervals.

We examined the effects of deer byproducts (femur, rib, horn) in maintaining periodontal health in pet dogs. Eight healthy adult dogs participated; for 1 month before the start of the experiment they were not given access to any foods or dental care products that could potentially reduce their dental plaque. The dogs freely ingested each byproduct for 3 min, in random order at 3- to 5-day intervals. Without the use of anesthesia, the experimenter measured the plaque score before and after each chewing session. The plaque reduction rate was femur 17.06%, rib 11.58%, and horn 23.76%, and the plaque score decreased significantly after chewing of femur or hone. Both femur and horn may thus improve oral hygiene in dogs. However, products should be provided in consideration of each dog’s age, breed and chewing ability, because the responses to these deer byproducts differ among individuals.

In the research fields of applied animal behaviour science and livestock management, we sometimes meet the situation that normality of experimental data cannot be assumed. Since general linear model such as ANOVA or regression analysis assumes the normality, data transformation or non-parametric methods were conventionally applied for such data. However, the data transformation do not always ensure the normality of the transformed data, and statistical power of non-parametric methods become lower than those of parametric methods. As a possible alternative of these conventional methods, generalized linear model have become widely used. The generalized linear model is the extension of the general linear model and deal with various distribution including normal distribution. In this manuscript, we firstly introduce the concepts of general linear model and then show the examples of analysis with sample data and practical commands using free software “R”.

Recently, generalized linear model have become widely used even in the research fields of applied animal behaviour science and livestock management. The generalized linear model is the extension of the general linear model and deal with various distribution including normal distribution. In the previous paper, we introduced the concepts of general linear model and showed the examples of analysis with sample data using free software “R”. In this manuscript, we introduce the concepts of generalized linear model and then show the examples of analysis with sample data and practical commands using “R”.