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Triticale Moisture and Protein Content Prediction by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)

¹Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. ²Corresponding author. Phone: 515-294-6358. Fax: 515-294-6383. E-mail address: igneb@iastate.edu. ³Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. ⁴Research associate, Pioneer Hi-Bred Int’l, Inc., Johnston, IA 50131.

The use of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the prediction of whole-grain triticale moisture and protein content was evaluated. Because triticale is genetically close to wheat, commercially available wheat prediction models for Foss Infratec analyzers were applied in a year-by-year basis to triticale samples harvested in Iowa between 2002 and 2006. Wheat models were not applicable to moisture prediction (SEP_avg = 0.37% pt; expected SEP on wheat samples 0.15% pt), but usable for screening for protein (SEP_avg = 0.38% pt; expected SEP on wheat samples 0.25% pt). Dedicated triticale calibrations were developed from 2002 to 2005 data. Prediction results for 2006 samples only were compared. Triticale calibrations performed better than wheat calibrations for 2006 samples (moisture SEP_triticale = 0.29% pt, SEP_wheat = 0.50% pt; protein SEP_triticale = 0.30% pt, SEP_wheat = 0.68% pt).