Estimation of bermudagrass forage intake from canopy spectral absorbance measurements using hyperspectral radiometry

摘要

Grazing animals on forage have a lower cost of gain than animals fed in feedlot on mixed rations.However nutrient levels of warm‐season forages frequently fall below animal requirements, thereby necessitating protein and/or energy supplementation.Conventional methods of estimation of forage quality are slow and labor intensive processes.Recent work has suggested that it is possible to assess pasture forage quality in real‐time, which allows stocker operators the technology to quickly recognize the need for supplementation ( Starks et al., 2005 ).However, uncertainty exists in the determination of actual nutrient deficiencies due to difficulties in estimation of forage intake in grazing animals.Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for the estimation of forage intake in grazing animals utilizing hyperspectral forage canopy light absorbance.