Forages in the light of NIRS

An insight into the determination of the chemical composition of forages via NIRS is presented. Predictive models developed at the Agroscope Institute for Livestock Sciences ILS show the typical values: R2 > 0.96 for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ADForg, NDForg, crude fibre (CF), cellulose, ash, fat, sugar and starch content in hay and grass, grass silage, green maize for silage and maize silage. The analysis of individual samples by NIRS is preferred to the analysis of a pooled sample by classical methods because NIRS shows the individual particularities of each sample.