Rapid and Simultaneous Determination of Feed Nutritive Values by Means of Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Feed plays a significant role in livestock production worldwide. Digestibility of feed such as in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) as well as the fractions of crude fiber such as neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) can be used as indicators of feed quality. To determine these nutritive parameters, several methods based on solvent extraction and other laboratory analyses are widely employed which are normally time consuming and may cause pollution since this analysis involves chemical materials. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is one of rapid alternative methods that can be considered to be applied due to its advantages. Therefore, the main objective of this present study is to apply NIRS in determining IVDMD, IVOMD, NDF, and ADF of animal feed samples simultaneously. Reflectance spectra were acquired for animal feed samples in wavelength range from 1000 to 2500 nm. Actual quality and nutritive values were measured by standard laboratory method. Spectra data were corrected by baseline shift correction (BSC), standard normal variate (SNV), and de-trending (DT). Prediction models were developed using principal component regression. Superior results for IVDMD, IVOMD, and NDF predictions were achieved using SNV with correlation coefficient (r) and RPD index of 0.93 and 2.78 for IVDMD, 0.90 and 2.35 for IVOMD, and 0.89 and 2.31 for NDF, respectively. ADF nutritive value was predicted accurately using DT spectrum with r and RPD index of 0.94 and 3.00, respectively. It may be concluded that NIRS can be used and applied as a rapid and simultaneous method in determining nutritive values of feed samples.