January 31, 2002
A new infrared test that measures
the quality of different hays will help farmers to determine how
much
feed an animal will eat.
CSIRO's
Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) is the subject of
patents in a number of countries including the United States,
Australia, Europe and Japan.
According to Dr David Henry, Project Leader at CSIRO Livestock
Industries, the objective measurement of the 'toughness' or
shear energy of hay quality using NIRS is a world first.
"In the fodder industry, there is a large reliance on subjective
assessments to determine which is the better hay," he says.
"Many producers look at the hay's colour, texture and taste it
for sweetness. However, people vary in their interpretation for
a variety of reasons and while the current chemical analyses
used can estimate the nutritive value of the feed, they cannot
predict feed intake."
At CSIRO Livestock Industries, forty years of research into what
drives feed intake culminated in the
development in 1993 of a 'shear energy' measurement. This
measurement reflects the time it takes an animal to break down
feed into small particle sizes that can be easily digested. The
higher a plant's shear energy measurement (or toughness), the
less an animal will eat when offered the feed in a voluntary
situation.
"What we've now done is develop the use of NIR to measure that
shear energy," Dr Henry says. "The beauty of NIRS is that it is
inexpensive, rapid and accurate."
Around the world, NIRS is already used for forage or feed
testing to measure fibre and sugar content to help predict
animal performance. Dr Henry envisages NIR measurement of the
shear energy character of fibre as an additional test which can
rapidly and accurately measure forage quality. In many cases,
standard industry laboratory equipment can be used and existing
samples recalibrated for shear energy or toughness.
Much of CSIRO's research has focussed on the oaten hay industry,
where Australia has a large export hay market to Japan, South
East Asia and the Middle East.
"This market is very competitive and you need an objective
measurement of quality," Dr Henry says. "There is wide
recognition of the need to trade fodder on the basis of its
feeding value, rather than on traditional subjective criteria,
like colour, aroma and texture."
"What we have found is that there is an extremely wide variation
in all forage quality characters from season to season, region
to region, across varieties of forage species and differing
agronomic practices," he says.
"We feel we have a robust and accurate method of measuring
quality, based on the oaten hay industry, and would like to make
that test widely available."
Dr Henry believes there are real field applications for the NIRS
technology to measure feed quality. A NIR measurement of shear
energy could be incorporated into standard tests for other
characteristics, such as fibre and carbohydrate.
"Incorporation of the shear energy measurement into NIR
laboratory testing is a relatively simple task," Dr Henry said.
"In the future, we might see a scenario where a NIR machine is
fitted to a hay baler. As the farmer is going across his paddock
and baling his hay, he gets a measurement of feed quality across
the entire paddock. That hay then goes to the processor or
export company, where there is capacity for a NIR machine to
continuously measure the quality of hay moving along the
conveyor belts."
When coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) this could
create yield maps and other data for precision agriculture.
In-field measurement will allow better quality control,
traceability and feed security.
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