The use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy for predicting the quality of grass silage

Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, using a fixed-filter instrument fitted with 19 filters, was evaluated for the prediction of crude protein and in-vitro dry matter digestibility in commercial farm grass silage. Crude protein (6.5–17.6%) was estimated with acceptable accuracy (standard error of prediction=0.63%) using a six-wavelength calibration, but in-vitro dry matter digestibility (40.7–69.9%) was not predicted with sufficient accuracy (standard error of prediction=2.96%) by this technique.