An attempt has been made to analyse the lactation yield into its two components, maximum yield and persistency; the latter has been defined as the ratio of lactation to maximum yield, and has been measured by a S.F. calculated from , where R is the mean ratio for the month of calving concerned.

Whilst, when corrections for external factors are applied, maximum and persistence are equally constant throughout the cow's life, these factors cause wider individual fluctuations with persistency; maximum yield is subject to a more rigid limit and may be largely determined by the area of the mammary gland, but persistency seems to be chiefly a nutritional factor—that is to say, it depends on the success of the mammary gland in competing with the other tissues of the body for the available nutriment. This leads to the view that persistency is higher in the dairy type of cow; it also appears to be associated with high constitution, for very definite positive selection is apparent with persistency, as compared to marked negative selection for maximum—this is attributed to pathological attrition falling more heavily on cows with high initial yield and low persistency.