Estimation of forage quality by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy in dallisgrass, Paspalum dilatatum, poir

Dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum Poir.) is an economically important and widely cultivated forage crop for livestock feeding in the tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions because of good adaptation to unsuitable pasture conditions. In this study, 216 dallisgrass samples were used to develop near infrared reflectance calibrations to estimate five forage quality parameters: dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and ash. Second derivative pretreatment was applied for calibration of DM, CP and NDF while a first derivative pretreatment was used for ADF and ash. The coefficients of determination in the internal validation set (r 2 ) were 0.78 for DM, 0.80 for CP, 0.95 for NDF 0.75 for ADF, and 0.71 for ash. The relative predictive determinant ratios for calibration indicate that the NDF equations were acceptable for quantitative prediction of dallisgrass quality, whereas the DM, CP, ADF, and ash equations were useful for screening purposes. The near infrared prediction models developed in this study can be used for screening in the forage breeding researches to be carried out for five quality parameters in the future.