A COMPARISON OF METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF DRY-MATTER CONCENTRATION IN GRASS-SILAGE INCLUDING AN EXTRACTION METHOD FOR WATER

Further investigation into silage dry matter determination methods has been prompted by the urgent need to replace toluene distillation with determination method(s) which offer less risk to health and safety. T he aim of this investigation was to establish the suitability of gas c hromatography (GCDM) and Karl Fischer titration (KFDM) as alternative methods for the routine determination of silage dry matter. These meth ods were compared with the current methodology of dry matter determina tion by toluene distillation with corrections for alcohols (TDM), oven drying (ODM), and volatile corrected oven dry matter (CODM). An extra ction method for water from grass silage was optimized using 71 grass silages produced from predominantly perennial ryegrass swards. These s ilages, which ranged from 114-471 gkg(-1) oven dry matter were analyze d using six methods including a modification of the standard toluene d istillation method where the distillate was analyzed by Karl Fischer t itration (KFTDM). Overall there was a 13.4 gkg(-1) DM difference (P < 0.01) between the ODM and TDM determinations. Both the dry matter conc entrations determined by gas chromatography (GCDM) and Karl Fischer ti tration (KFDM) methods gave significantly higher results than TDM exce pt in the highest DM range, but were not significantly different from KFTDM. Overall the results from the six methods could be-grouped into three groups: ODM, TDM, and CODM, KFTDM, GCDM, and KFDM with means of 232.3, 245.7, and 253.6 gkg(-1), respectively. The mean 7.9 gkg(-1) in crease in DM of the methods over TDM suggests that some volatile and w ater-soluble components which commonly occur in silage are not account ed for. The results suggest that estimation of water by either gas chr omatography or Karl Fischer titration provides a safe, and an accurate improvement in the methodology of dry matter determination. The gas c hromatographic procedure has the advantage of low costs/sample with th e possible additional benefits of batch processing and automation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.