PRELIMINARY-STUDY ON THE ANALYSIS OF FORAGES WITH A FILTER-TYPE NEAR-INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROMETER

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy with a tilting filter spectrometer was evaluated for the analysis of forages. The results from this instrument along with those from a spectrocomputer (monochromator type instrument) are presented. The analyses were determined for warm-and cool-season grasses. The tilting filter instrument and the spectrocomputer both gave adequate standard deviations for calibration for the crude protein (±1.1%), acid detergent fiber (±1.75%), and permanganate lignin (±0.65%) analysis. The analysis of in vitro dry matter digestibility (±3.0%) and neutral detergent fiber (±3.5%) was not considered adequate. Also results showed that warm and cool-season grasses should be analyzed separately with different regression equations. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.