Sample Handling

Feedstuff or TMR samples are dried overnight at a maximum 620C, ground to 6‐mm and sub‐sampled for analysis. One portion is ground to 1‐mm for the more traditional analyses provided on the report.The other portion of the 6‐mm ground sample is sent to RFS TechnologiesTM for gas‐fermentation analysis. Rumen fluid is collected from lactating cows producing a minimum of 65 lbs milk in a commercial dairy close to the lab. Cows are milked 2X/day and their diet is over 60% forage, starch levels over 20%, with no BST usage. Fluid is pooled from the donor cows. No dry or low production cows are used as donors. Cows are fed daily at 6:45am and fluid is collected at 9:30am. The rumen fluid is filtered through cheese cloth prior to addition of the buffer and fermentation runs begins roughly 30 minutes after collection. Standards are also incubated to monitor incubation consistency.