Get reliable science

The use of faecal Near Infra -red Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict the diet quality selected by grazing cattle and future body condition of cattle has been evaluated for several common pasture types in the Pilbara and Kimberley of Western Australia. During a three year project, changes in cattle body condition scores (BCS) were recorded at seventeen locations in the Pilbara and Kimberley at regular intervals. Diet quality selected by these grazing animals was predicted from faecal samples collected at each observation using NIRS.

NIRS predictions of digestibility, diet crude protein (Diet CP) and faecal nitrogen (FN) predictions were shown to be correlated with breeder body condition six and nine weeks into the future.