Use of NIR to Assess Nutrient Contents of Feed Ingredients Offers Potential Dramatic Savings on Feed Costs

Mar 20, 2013

By Bruce Cochrane

A researcher with Gowans Feed Consulting says the use of NIR to evaluate the nutritional contents of feed ingredients has the potential to dramatically reduce feeding costs.

Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy is a non-invasive technique that uses light to analyze the chemical bonds in feedstuffs to provide an indication of nutritional content.
Using NIR Technology to Reduce Feed Costs was among the topics discussed yesterday in Morris as part of Swine Nutrition Update 2013.

Dr. Malachy Young, the manager of nutrition research with Gowans Feed Consulting says the main limitations of NIR are the cost of the equipment and limited availability of accurate calibrations.

Dr. Malachy Young-Gowans Feed Consulting:
With good calibration equations and with the ongoing upkeep of those calibrations NIR technology can be very cost effective,It allows you to do a lot more samples compared to wet chemistry and can be quite accurate, will not be as good as wet chemistry, but can be quite accurate for the tools we want to use it for.

Calibration equations available for our main ingredients are wheat, barley, peas, canola meal, soybean meal, we have calibration equations.

What's unique about the feed evaluation program from Alberta is the energy calibrations are the best probably available in the world as far as calibrations to estimate digestible energy in ingredients which are not available elsewhere.

All our calibrations on DDGS are available, wheat shorts or wheat mids are available and more will be developed as these ingredients become available.

Dr. Young acknowledges the accuracy achievable with NIR will never be as good as with wet chemistry but the cost is considerably less and the speed is much faster producing results within 30 seconds of conducting the tests.

He says how accurate the results will be will depend on the accuracy of the calibrations.

Source: Farmscape

Video: Exploring Precision Data in Swine Production - Dr. Janice Siegford

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show, Dr. Janice Siegford from Michigan State University discusses how precision livestock farming data can support pig health, welfare, transparency, and decision making. She explains why data ownership, privacy, consumer perception, and cost sharing must be addressed as technology becomes more common on farms. Listen now on all major platforms.

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Meet the guest: Dr. Janice Siegford / janice-siegford-24318839 is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University. Her expertise in animal welfare, neuroscience, and zoology supports research on pig behavior, stress resilience, and precision livestock farming. Her work explores early weaning, genetics, and stakeholder perspectives on technology adoption to improve pig care, health, and productivity. Learn more from Dr. Janice Siegford on The Swine it Podcast Show, available on all major platforms.