Imagine knowing, almost immediately, how much nutrition a calf is getting from the grass it's grazing on — or even how much weight it'll gain if it keeps eating that particular grass. That may one day be possible, thanks to spectral reflectance studies at ARS's Grazinglands Research Laboratory in El Reno, Oklahoma. Complete development and commercial use of this technology are at least a few years away. But an important step toward that goal was taken recently when the ARS laboratory established a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with two Oklahoma firms. Under it, the firms will design and develop a small, hand-held, low-cost optical remote sensor that can be used in the field to calculate, store, and display data on a forage's nutrient quality.
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