Fatty Acids analysis. Frozen silage is thawed, and placed into a tall form beaker with distilled water. Samples are extracted and analyzed along with an internal standard using a Gas Chromatograph. Several of these components are often used directly for silage quality indicators, whereas presence of absence of others are key in palatability,and odor. We perform Starch and Sugar analyses on dried and ground samples.
Samples are first hydrated and then mixed with a buffer and enzyme.
The resultant mixture is autoclaved and cooled. The cooled sample is either analyzed for sugar directly, or vortexed with a hydrolytic enzyme and buffer. The latter mixture is placed in a incubated shaker for 48 hours based on sample type. The resultant is filtered and mixed with a colorimetric detection enzyme. Total sugars are measured using a double beam spectrophotometer.