History of NIRS Near-infrared radiation was first identified in 1800 by William Herschel, who was curious as to whether a certain color was associated to the heat of sunlight. It is this kind of curiosity that has characterized advances in near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in forage and feed testing.

What is silage? Crops such as corn, alfalfa and grass are preserved and stored as silage. Silage inoculants work with the lactic acid found naturally in crops to ferment sugars into lactic and other acids and alcohol to lower pH levels to preserve the crop for later feeding.

When we finish a TMR audit, some questions are pretty routine. “Which is the best facer to purchase?” though, is not among them. “Which is the best mixer?” is among them. Yet, both the facer and the mixer affect feed quality every day of the year. Do you give equal consideration to the facer and mixer you use?

The high-producing dairy cow in transition adjusts its metabolism to mobilize calcium from skeletal reserves and energy from adipose reserves in a timely fashion, along with up-regulating intake capacity, to meet nutrient requirements for peak milk production in early lactation. Circulating calcium plays an important role in physiological regulation of both intake and lipolysis.

With the advent of BMR hybrids, forages like forage sorghum, sorghum-sudan and sudan hybrids have moved sorghums from the “just heifer” feed category to the top of the “dairy” quality feed category (and became even better heifer feed). In the sorghum family, there are three types of BMR plants available: BMR Gene 6, BMR Gene 12 and BMR Gene 18. For purposes of this article, BMR Gene 6 will be generally referenced.

In the last 10 years, the use of corn grain for feed has been reduced by nearly 30 percent. The emphasis on corn for fuel instead of feed has driven up the competition for corn grain and corn silage. The reality of the future is that less corn and silage and more corn co-products will be available for use in cattle diets. Producers have had to seek out new uses for co-products from corn processing industries and will continue to have to do so.

Reaching high peak milk production is key to a successful lactation. Each 1-pound increase in peak milk translates into 213 to 304 pounds more milk throughout the entire lactation. Unfortunately, a cow’s inability to increase dry matter intake during the first weeks after calving can prevent the cow from reaching high peak milk production. The challenge is even greater when rations contain high levels of forage that is not easy to digest.

Advances in forage fiber testing have been rapid over the past 30 years to keep pace with our evolving understanding of nutrient needs of high-producing dairy cows. Forage testing today utilizes a combination of chemical, physical and biological tests – all of which still need to be correlated with animal digestion or in vivo data.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), the queen of the forage crops, is one of the most developed and researched forage and pasture crops in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world where it is well adapted. It’s normally considered to be productive for three to five years throughout much of the Midwest and follows a regular stand decline pattern of 20 to 50 or more plants per square foot at establishment to less than 10 plants per square foot at the end of its productive life span.