All posts in Forage Analysys

Huw McConichie of Winnstay joined us two days ago as we carried out a grass silage, corn silage and TMR analysis at the Oakshall Farm, just outside Pentesbury. 

Sam Pearson wished to have the quality of his feed checked and he wanted to see how the different cuts of silage he made during the summer were performing in terms of nutrients. We analyzed 6 samples of grass silage, 4 samples of corn silage and 3 samples of TMR: the results were ready in less then 10 minutes!!

It was a cold and crispy morning yesterday when we arrived in Pentesbury, sunny but with the hills covered in snow: perfect weather to perform a NIR analysys with our portable AgriNIR™ feed analyzer. Sam Pearson, dairy farmer of the very well organized Oakshall Farm decided to have both corn silage and grass silage checked, so we picked samples from the silage pit and went to his office. The analysis of each sample took us less then a minute and the results were recorded on a USB stick and printed out. Sam had a real time picture of what he is actually feeding his cows !! No sample preparation, milling, drying and other time consuming activities: we scanned the samples as they were taken from the silage pit. Once again the simplicity of the process, the speed of the analysis and the accuracy of the machine made a strong impression, even on someone as technologically minded as Sam (during the process he was already posting photos and comments on Twitter!). “With this system” he said ” it is possible for me and for my consultant to monitor what I am feeding my cows and to adjust the diet of my cows any time if necessary” “Keeping under control the feed is strategic for any farmer” added Huw McConichie. “If a dairy farmer with 200 cows is overfeeding protein by 2%, with this system I could potentially save him up to £15.000 over winter”.  It is indeed satisfying that our AgriNIR™ can help farmers saving money, especially considering the difficult economic climate!

Thursday the 21st of November we did a grass silage analysis at the Low Sizergh Barn Farm, just outside Kendal. 

Richard Park wanted to have the quality of his feed checked and he wanted to see how the 3 different cut of silage he made during the summes were performing in terms of nutrients. So we did a grass silage analysis in field with our portable forage analyzer AgriNIR™ right next to his silage pit.

We drove to his farm right next to his silage pit, and while he choose which samples he wanted to have analyzed we plugged the portable forage analyzer in the 12v plug of our car.We selected which type of feed we wanted to analyze among the 10 families available, and we decided to make 3 reading of every sample. Richards decided to scan 5 samples from his first, second and third cut of silage, in order to have a complete view on his feed.

In less ten minutes the analysis was done and Richard had in his hand the printout with the results: he had a real time picture of what he is actually feeding his cows !! No sample preparation, milling, drying and other time consuming activities: we scanned the samples as it was taken from the silage pit .

The speed of the process, the simplicity of the silage analysis and the accuracy of the machine was what impressed Richard the most. “With this system” he said ” it is possible for me to monitor, in a very accurate way, what I am feeding my cows and I can make changes in the diet of my cows any time is necessary” “And you did it right in mi silage pit… amazing!!”

Thanks Richard, happy to help.

Your Cows will love it !!!