As we have said before, BASF Plant Science takes a biological approach to evaluating silage quality rather than relying on NIR alone. One such NIR evaluation is MILK2006. Over the next few weeks, we will answer some common questions about MILK2006 to increase your understand and help you make the most informed decision about how to evaluate your silage.
Question:
Does MILK2006 take into account kernel texture (endosperm properties), particle size, harvest maturity and whole plant dry matter in assessing hybrid properties?
Answer:
Kernel processing score (KPS) is a potential input value in MILK2006 with scores greater than 70% being optimal. The relationship, however, between KPS values and in vivo starch digestibility measurements is not well defined. This can result in highly variable measurements between laboratories since most silage samples are finely ground prior to analysis (the grinding may mask differences between samples). MILK2006 accounts for harvest maturity via whole plant dry matter (DM). However, this does not account for differences occurring between hybrids with varying DM content in the grain versus forage fractions of the whole-plant silage.
