Statistics - Math 221 - Diary Farm Essay

Dairy Cow/Milk Production

Math 221 – Final Project October, 22, 2000 T. Lock

Dairy Cow/Milk Production

Math 221 – Final Project October, 22, 2000 T. Lock

For the purposes of this paper, 50 Holstein dairy cows were chosen for study by assigning a number to each of the farmer’s cows, randomly selecting a starting point or number on the list of cows, and then selecting every 5th number as a member of the sample population. Relying on inferential statistics, these 50 cows were then used as quantitative data, representing a sample allowing us to draw conclusions about the entire population of dairy cows at the farmer’s dairy farm. The following is a listing of the lbs. of milk produced by each of the 50 cows.

2825 | 2072 | 2733 | 2069 | 2484 | 4285 | 2862 | 3353 | 1449 | 2029 |

1258 | 2982 | 2045 | 1677 | 1619 | 2597 | 3512 | 2444 | 1773 | 2284 |

1884 | 2359 | 2046 | 2364 | 2669 | 3109 | 2804 | 1658 | 2207 | 2159 |

2207 | 2882 | 1647 | 2051 | 2202 | 3223 | 2383 | 1732 | 2230 | 1147 |

2711 | 1874 | 1979 | 1319 | 2923 | 2281 | 1230 | 1665 | 1294 | 2936 |

The mean (or sum of data entries divided by number of entries) of 2270, is only very slightly larger than the median (the data at the middle of the sample), and the mode (the data entry that occurs with the greatest frequency) which are both the same at 2207. This represents a very slight affect by the outliers at the high and low ends of the data sample, indicating that the mean presents the most accurate description of the data set. (Larson & Farber, 2011. pgs. 66, 67, 68). [See Exhibit A].

The range of the data set, 3138, represents the difference between the cow that produces the minimum lbs. of milk per cow and the cow that produces the maximum lbs. of milk per month; which tell us that there is a large difference in the of lbs. of...