Real-Life Math
Math skills are important for dairy inspectors. "Farms are scored
during inspections, and the results are tabulated yearly to determine annual
statistics, which are used to evaluate the dairy industry," says Tony van
Vonderen. He's a dairy inspector.
"Some milk tests we perform... require
the use of formulas in addition to the standard math skills."
You are
a dairy inspector completing a statistical analysis of milk production for
the previous month. You are creating a table to show what percentage of tested
milk samples met the standards for the somatic cell count.
Somatic
cells are body cells that are present in all milk. A somatic cell count that
is too high can be an indicator of udder damage in the cow. This is bad news
for the dairy farmer, since the cow is probably producing less milk than normal.
There
are other negative effects. Milk that is high in somatic cells is more likely
to taste odd, and may go sour more quickly. Therefore, it is important for
both the farmer and the dairy inspector to know when the somatic cell count
in a batch of milk is over the recommended limit.
A somatic
cell count of 100,000 to 250,000 indicates there may be a problem with an
individual cow. A count between 250,000 and 500,000 indicates that the situation
needs to be monitored, but the milk still falls within the standards.
A
count over 500,000 means there is a serious problem with the herd. The dairy
inspector must thoroughly check over the farm's milking equipment and procedures.
Milk produced at this farm will probably not be sold until the problem is
corrected.
Here is the data you need to include in the table:
Somatic
Cell Count
| Count | Samples | Percentages |
| 250,000 | 320 |
| 250,001 to 500,000 | 175 |
| 500,001 to 625,000 | 4 |
| 625,001 to 1,000,000 | 1 |
| 1,000,000 | 0 |
Total:
Total percentage of samples falling within the standards:
To
complete the table, you need to calculate the percentage of samples that fall
into each category, and the total percentage of samples that meet the standard.