Abstract
AbstractBrachiaria humidicola (BH) (syn. Urochloa humidicola) is an important forage grass in the tropics due to its capacity to grow in nutrient‐deficient soils, tolerate waterlogging, and inhibit soil nitrification. A major objective of BH breeding is to improve its nutritional quality. Therefore, a rapid and low‐cost method is needed to assess main quality parameters such as neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), and crude protein (CP). This study developed models using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict concentrations of these parameters toward breeding. Samples were collected from BH trials located in different regions of Colombia, scanned for NIRS (400–2,500 nm), analyzed with wet chemistry as reference values, and used to build the chemometric models. Results from wet chemistry showed wide variability in terms of dry matter percentage for NDF (51.6–76.2%), ADF (26.1–46.1%), IVDMD (41.5–78.3%), and CP (2.8–12.8%). The NIRS models were validated using an independent set of samples and have coefficients of determination (R2) and one minus the variance ratio (1 – VR) values in the range of .9 and .95, suggesting a good correlation between reference‐lab and NIRS‐predicted values. The standard errors of cross validation (SECV) for IVDM, NDF, ADF, and CP were 1.59, 1.18, 0.74, and 0.53%, respectively. Prediction efficiency (ratio of performance to standard deviation, RPD) for all parameters was above 3.0, except for CP (2.6). Calibrations obtained present an adequate adjustment and predictive tendency, making them suitable for selection and BH breeding.
Highlights
In this case (i.e., crude protein (CP)), the variability of the Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick (BH) hybrids used for CP model and other parameters were represented in both calibration and validation sets suggesting that the CP population size is adequate for initial model development
The standard error of laboratory (SEL) values calculated between duplicates using the reference method for neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), and CP were 0.72, 0.32, 1.7, and 0.11%, respectively
Brachiaria humidicola is a forage grass that is a major source of animal feed in many livestock systems in the tropics, for poorly drained and waterlogged environments
Summary
It is tolerant to waterlogging and adapted to acidic soils with high Al saturation and low fertility (Pérez & Lascano, 1992). Another valuable attribute of BH is its excellent weed suppressive ability, which can be attributed to its strongly stoloniferous growth and ability to maintain good ground cover under high animal stocking rates (Cook et al, 2020). There is pressure on the livestock industry to meet the challenge of providing environmentally friendly and nutritious forage. Being able to produce high-quality forage secures high live weight gains and health of cattle and income for livestock farmers (OEDC/FAO, 2017). Since a large portion of what an animal eats ends up as excrement (between 50 and 90% of feed C, N, and P), chemical constituents need to be appropriately determined in forages to reduce environmental pollution caused by animal production (HLPE, 2016)
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