Grazingland Animal Nutrition Lab

Laboratory offering decision support for better nutritional management of livestock and stewardship of natural resources

FNIRS/NUTBAL Sampling Contracts for USDA/NRCS Customers

 

 

 

FNIRS provides an efficient means for determining animal performance and forage quality based upon the diet selection of your grazing animals.

The Gan Lab offers FNIRS analysis of livestock and wildlife samples to estimate diet crude protein, diet digestible organic matter which is approximately equal to total digestible nutrients (TDN), as well as fecal nitrogen and phosphorus. These values can be combined with animal information such breed, age, class, weight, body condition score (BCS), and weather conditions into the Nutbal software to predict animal performance (i.e. weight change) and thus inform management decision making.

Service Contract Descriptions

Bronze Level
 

Bronze Level


Cow/calf (or ewe/lamb, doe/kid, doe/fawn, etc…). Interested producers should start with 12 samples per year (one per month) for at least 3 years to build a baseline forage nutritional monitoring dataset, tailored to their specific location and operation strategy. Then in years 4 and 5, drop back to ~6 samples per year at important points in their production cycle and environment.
 
Stockers (cattle, sheep, goat). Interested producers should collect 6 samples per designated grazing period; e.g. 3 months, 1 sample every 2 weeks. Do this for 3 years and then adjust to a producer identified “as needed basis”, minimum of 3 samples per grazing period, for years 4 and 5.
 
Diet quality (crude protein and digestible organic matter) analyses are available for cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and elk. Predictions are available for other species such as bison or exotic ungulates, using surrogate calibrations from closely related livestock species.
 
In concert with collection of baseline grazing nutritional data, producers may also use the FNIRS/Nutbal technology to evaluate conservation/management effects of (for example):
Improved grazing management,
Woody plant treatment (mechanical or chemical), or
Prescribed fire.
 
For those participating in NRCS programs, example categories that could involve FNIRS/Nutbal include Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry Mitigation Activities such as:

– CSAF practice E512L. Diversifying forage base with interseeding forbs and legumes to increase pasture quality.

– CSAF practice E528A. Maintaining quantity and quality of forage for animal health and productivity.

– CSAF practice E528G. Improved grazing management on pasture for plant productivity and health with monitoring activities.

– CSAF practice E528N. Improved grazing management through monitoring activities.

– CSAF practice E528R. Management intensive rotational grazing.

– CSAF practice 592. Feed Management (animal unit), used to reduce enteric methane emissions.

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Silver Level
 

Silver Level


Producers who have established a baseline for their operation and have applied FNIRS/Nutbal to evaluate effectiveness of conservation/management practices may advance to inclusion of this technology along with other stewardship metrics (for example):

– Frequent sampling during key management periods identified during routine monitoring. Such as weekly samples for 3-4 weeks around the average date for a first hard freeze or spring green up, and then 2-3 weeks after a freeze/green up to refine supplemental feeding strategies (i.e. start/stop, product choice, quantity).

– Schedule targeted grazing to achieve better animal nutritional status while removing plant material.

– Optimize nutrition for mixed species grazing, including wildlife/livestock interactions.

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GOld Level
 

Gold Level


In addition to the FNIRS/Nutbal specific applications listed above, producers may wish to focus nutritional monitoring on advanced animal nutritional management or stewardship effectiveness, (for example):

– Acquiring enteric methane production estimates from a herd with which to refine climate smart management decisions concerning grazing and or feeding. 

– Time breeding/parturition to better coincide with forage nutritional provision.

– Acquiring fecal nitrogen and phosphorus data to inform pasture nutrient management plans.

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