Maize starch yield calibrations with near infrared reflectance

Maize starch yield is affected by variety, environmental growing conditions, and drying conditions. One-hundred gram starch yield tests that predict actual wet milling starch yield were used as a reference method for developing an extractable starch calibration on a NIRSystems Model 6500 spectrophotometer. A maize starch yield calibration was developed from 940 samples and used to predict a validation set of 304 samples. It had a standard error of prediction (SEP) of 1.06, a coefficient of determination r(2) of 0.77 and a ratio of performance to deviations (rpd) of 2.1. This indicates about 95% of similar samples could have starch yield predicted by near-infrared reflectance within about+/-2.1%. The calibration should be successful in segregating maize lots for high and low starch yield percentages. (C) 2003 Silsoe Research Institute. All rights reserved.Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.