Trouw Nutrition introduces a new calibration curve for fresh grass, which farmers can use on their own farm to analyse the quality of their own fresh grass within 10 minutes. This innovation represents a step forward in precision feeding, because with this calibration curve, dairy rations can now be formulated even more accurately and economically. The new calibration curve is available in the NutriOpt On-site Adviser, Trouw Nutrition’s mobile NIR.
Maximum animal performance requires sophisticated feed management. Especially with the current high price of raw materials and more extreme weather patterns that is putting pressure on the forage stock, correctly estimating the feed value is more important than ever. This starts with accurate insights on the quality of available raw materials (grass silage, maize silage and fresh grass). The quicker and more detailed the insights on nutritional values are, the better an optimum dairy ration can be formulated.
Analysing the protein percentage, determining the right moment for mowing and determining the best plot for grazing: the new calibration curve for fresh grass offers farmers numerous advantages.
The method is very simple: the mobile scanner is placed on the collected grass and the mobile phone connects to the On-site Adviser. The supplied app guides farmers through the entire scanning procedure, and within 5 minutes they have a complete summary report on the grass quality on the plot. For now, this new calibration line will allow users to measure moisture, crude protein, crude fibre and sugar in fresh grass samples.
To analyse fresh grass samples, the user should select the “Roughage scanner – Fresh grass” profile in the On-site Adviser app. The results from the scan can easily be exported to other software so that this information can be included directly in the ration calculations.
