4/27/09
Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy–Principal Components Regression Analyses of Soil Properties
4/23/09
Application of two-dimensional near-infrared (2D-NIR) correlation spectroscopy to the discrimination of three species of Dendrobium
4/18/09
4/17/09
4/16/09
4/15/09
Development of a Continuous Online Detecting System for Fruits Using Near Infrared Technology
4/14/09
FRUIT QUALITY OF VESUVIAN APRICOTS HARVESTED AT DIFFERENT RIPENING STAGES AFTER A COLD-STORAGE PERIOD
4/13/09
Near Infra Red Diode Array Spectrometers for On-Line Applications - An application paper in the field of agriculture using our LowCost NIR-Spectrom
This paper also presents the advantages of NIR diode array technology and highlights the performance characteristics of this affordably priced NIR spectrometer.
4/12/09
4/11/09
4/10/09
4/9/09
Application of near infrared spectroscopy for estimating available nitrogen in poultry manure compost
4/8/09
Iowa research aims to help corn silage producers
SECTIONS : REGIONAL NEWS |
Iowa research aims to help corn silage producers
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Agri News staff writer
CALMAR, Iowa -- What started as a discussion at last year's Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation annual meeting grew into a corn silage yield trial last summer. Plans are under way to continue the plot.
"Other than our plot there are no independent yield trials being conducted on corn hybrids for silage in Iowa," said Dale Thoreson, Iowa State University Extension dairy beef and forage specialist at the recent annual meeting of the foundation at the Dairy Center south of Calmar.
After a presentation on applied research at last year's annual meeting, a coalition formed to create a corn silage test plot. The group included Extension officials, Northeast Iowa Community College instructors, Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation members and several seed corn representatives. NICC was interested in introducing students to plot research. The operations committee for the dairy foundation wanted better information for selecting silage hybrids.
American Organics, Monsanto Seed Group, Mycogen Seeds and Pioneer Hi-Bred International each submitted three hybrids known to be superior for corn silage in 2008. The companies paid for lab analysis at harvest.
The Calmar trial was established on a Fayette silt loam soil, Thoreson said. A randomized complete block design was used with three replications of each hybrid. The trial was planted May 14 and harvested Sept. 12.
Twelve hybrids planted were in 4-row plots. Each was replicated three times.
Harvested plants were weighed on a platform scale. Six stalks from each plot were randomly selected to be chopped in a wood chipper. Samples in plastic bags were transported to Dairyland Laboratories in Arcadia, Wis., where dry matter and NIR analysis was done. Tests included crude protein, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber digestibility at 24 and 30 hours, in-vitro dry matter digestibility at 30 hours, starch, fat and lignin.
The laboratory also calculated milk per ton for each hybrid using "Milk2006," a program developed by Randy Shaver at the University of Wisconsin. Milk 2006 approximates animal performance based on a standard cow weight and milk production level. Shaver suggested to Thoreson that they should consider more factors than those used in his program.
"To determine a more accurate hybrid ranking we used Corn Picker for Silage, a partial budget program developed by Mike Allen at the University of Michigan," Thoreson said. "Corn Picker for Silage considers all economically important traits that vary by hybrid for corn silage production."
The dairy foundation received a grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture to help pay for next year's silage plot costs. Thoreson and other researchers will look at how planting a winter rye cover crop reduces wind and water erosion. More companies are interested in getting involved this year.
4/7/09
Forensic Application of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Aging of Bloodstains
4/5/09
Prediction of important sulphite pulp properties from NIR spectra.
4/4/09
Application of NIR Technology in the Feed Analysis
4/3/09
Simultaneous determination of sulphamethoxazole and trimethoprim in powder mixtures by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared and
A partial least-squares calibration (PLS) procedure in combination with previous terminfrarednext term spectroscopy has been developed for simultaneous determination of sulphamethoxazole (SMZ) and trimethoprim (TMP) in raw material powder mixtures used for manufacturing commercial pharmaceutical products. Multivariate calibration modeling procedures, interval partial least squares (iPLS) and synergy partial least squares (siPLS), were applied to select a spectral range that provided the lowest prediction error in comparison to the full-spectrum model. The experimental matrix was constructed using 49 synthetic samples and 15 commercial samples. The considered concentration ranges were 400–900 mg g−1 SMZ and 80–240 mg g−1 TMP. Spectral data were recorded between 650 and 4000 cm−1 with a 4 cm−1 resolution by Fourier transform previous terminfrarednext term spectroscopy coupled with attenuated total reflectance (ATR-FTIR) accessory. The proposed procedure was compared with conventional procedure by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using 15 commercial samples containing SMZ and TMP. The results showed that PLS regression model combined to ATR-FTIR is a relatively simple, rapid and accurate procedure that could be applied to the simultaneous determination of SMZ and TMP in routine quality control of powder mixtures. A root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 13.18 mg g−1 for SMZ and 6.03 mg g−1 for TMP was obtained after selection of better intervals by siPLS. Using the proposed procedure it is possible to analyze each sample in less than 3 min considering two replicates (excluding the grinding step). Accuracy was checked by comparison to HPLC method and agreement better than 98.8% was achieved.