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The experiment tested the hypothesis that short-term feeding of barley just before lambing would be as effective as maize in stimulating early production of colostrum. Both grains are high in starch, and should provide a substrate for lactose which, in turn, promotes lactogenesis. Thirty-five Corriedale ewes bearing single foetuses and 25 bearing twin-foetuses from a synchronised mating were fed on pasture during most of gestation. Fourteen days before the expected time of lambing the single-and twinbearing ewes were allocated to three treatments and fed (1) a basal diet of lucerne hay to meet their nutrient requirements, (2) the basal diet plus a supplement of whole barley; or (3) the basal diet plus a supplement of cracked maize. The twin-bearing control ewes accumulated more colostrum than the single-bearing control ewes at birth (292 v. 190 g). However, supplementation with barley or maize increased the colostrum at birth to 360 and 541 g in singles and 648 and 623 g in twins. We conclude that barley is a good alternative to maize to stimulate production of colostrum especially in twin-bearing ewes whose lambs are the most likely to benefit from the supplement.

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of near infrared reflectance (NIRS) spectroscopy to predict the nutritive value of silages from pastures and to assess the effect of silage structure type (e.g. bunker and bag silos) on the NIRS predictions. Samples (n = 120) were sourced from commercial farms and analyzed in a NIRS monochromator instrument (NIR Systems, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA) using wavelengths between 400 and 2500 nm in reflectance. Calibration models were developed between chemical and NIRS spectral data using partial least squares (PLS) regression. The coefficients of determination in calibration (R 2) and the standard error in cross validation (SECV) were 0.73 (SECV: 1.2%), 0.81 (SECV: 2.0%), 0.75 (SECV: 6.6%), 0.80 (SECV: 6.7%), 0.80 (SECV: 4.0%), 0.60 (SECV: 3.6%) and 0.70 (SECV: 0.34) for ash, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), dry matter (DM), acid detergent fiber (ADF), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and pH, respectively. The results showed the potential of NIRS to analyze DM, ADF and CP in silage samples from pastures.

Near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy was used to predict nitrogen (N), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and chromium (Cr) in beef faecal samples. One hundred and twenty faecal samples were scanned in a NIRSystems 6500 monochromator instrument over the wavelength range of 400–2500 nm in reflectance. Calibration equations were developed using modified partial least squares (MPLS) with internal cross validation to avoid overfitting. The coefficient of determination in calibration ( R2cal) and the standard error in cross validation ( SECV) were 0.80 (0.74) for N, 0.92 (12.04) for ADF, 0.86 (13.5) for NDF and 0.56 (0.07) for Cr in g kg−1 dry weight, respectively. Results for validation were 0.78 ( SEP: 0.1) for N, 0.74 ( SEP: 7.5) for ADF, 0.85 ( SEP: 8.5) for NDF and 0.10 (0.09) for Cr in g kg−1 dry weight, respectively.