Table 2.

The effect of dry period length (DPL), parity and energy balance (EB), on 10 milk metabolites and 5 milk production traits obtained through partial least squares analysis in lactation week 7. These 15 variables had a relatively high VIP score¹ in week 7.

	DPL		Parity		EB		Two-way interaction
	FCa	P value	FCb	P value	P value	EB*DPL	EB*Parity	DPL*Parity
Milk metabolites
Acetylcholine	1.73	<0.01	1.07	0.94	0.15	NM2	NM	NM
Carnitine	1.21	0.19	1.17	0.03	<0.01	NM	NM	NM
Choline	1.23	0.15	1.27	0.01	<0.01	NM	NM	NM
Citrulline	0.83	0.21	0.97	0.99	<0.01	<0.01	NM	0.03
Creatine	1.17	0.05	1.13	0.05	0.05	NM	NM	NM
Glycine	0.70	0.12	0.76	0.02	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	NM
Pantothenic acid	1.32	<0.01	1.18	0.04	0.10	NM	NM	NM
Proline	0.88	0.35	0.85	0.22	0.02	NM	NM	NM
Serine	0.87	0.93	0.87	0.36	0.02	NM	NM	NM
Tyrosine	1.03	0.03	1.05	0.13	<0.01	0.02	<0.01	<0.01
Milk Production Traits
Fat (kg/d)	0.84	0.52	0.92	0.47	<0.01	NM	NM	NM
FPCM3	0.86	0.69	0.88	0.15	<0.01	0.02	NM	NM
Lactose (kg/d)	0.82	0.86	0.85	0.03	<0.01	0.09	NM	NM
Milk Yield (kg/d)	0.84	0.95	0.83	<0.01	<0.01	NM	NM	NM
Protein (kg/d)	0.91	0.25	0.89	0.08	<0.01	<0.01	NM	NM

^aFold change in the metabolite concentration (DPL 0/30).

^bFold change in the metabolite concentration (parity 2/3).

¹Variable importance in projection score in partial least squares analysis.

²NM: Not included in model.

³FPCM, fat- and protein-corrected milk production.