4.1 Standalone Operation

BESTPRED is run in standalone mode by running the program bestpred (bestpred.exe on MS Windows) from a command line. When the program is run the parameter file is read, data file read, calculations performed, and output written. Multiple animal records can be processed from the same file. During development of BESTPRED a file of 150,000 records was routinely processed with no difficulty. When running in standalone mode data are read from an input file based on the value of the source parameter (Table 4.1). Records from sources other than 10 (AIPL Format 4) are converted into http://aipl.arsusda.gov/formats/fmt4.htmlFormat 4 records and passed downstream for processing.

Description of input data sources Source & Filename & Contents

$\begin{xtabular}{llp{4in}} 10 & format4.dat & See: \href{http://aipl.arsusda.go... ...5 bytes), fat and protein (4 bytes each), and SCS (3 bytes). \\ \end{xtabular}$

Format 15 is identical to Format 10 except that herd average 305-d ME yields for milk, fat, protein, and SCS are read from the file format4.means, which should contain a record corresponding to each lactation in format4.dat. Both files should be sorted in the same order. The cow IDs and calving dates from the two files are checked against one another, and BESTPRED will halt if there is a mismatch.

If you want to account for days open in the previous lactation (0 to 999 d) write the value into columns 246 through 248 of your Format 4 file. The value will be passed downstream to the bestpred_fmt4 and bestpred subroutines. When a value of 0 is enocuntered no adjustement is made.

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