Evaluation of fecal near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy profiling technology to predict forage intake estimated using n-alkane markers in grazing cattle

An abstract of a study by Johnson et al evaluating the accuracy of fecal near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict forage intake estimated using n-alkane markers in grazing animals is presented. For this study, independent-trial validation results for the prediction of fecal alkane concentrations and forage DMI estimated using the n-alkane method were poor. Although cross-validation results indicate the potential of this technology to predict forage intake of grazing animals, the independent- trial validation results suggest that a larger database will be needed to enhance robustness of predictive equations across diverse production systems.