Preliminary research shows potential for using proximal infrared technology for livestock monitoring and phenotyping

Two scoping studies have been undertaken recently investigating the potential application of infrared technology for phenotyping several different traits of beef cattle. These studies include the potential for non-invasive analysis of hair to discriminate classes of cattle (O’Neill et al. 2017) and analysis of beef through skin (Roberts et al. 2017). Infrared technology was used to collect spectra information in two different studies from hair and meat in a laboratory setting. Data was analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for classification. In each example, leave-one-out cross validation was applied once classification models were developed. Results from both studies were positive, with successful classification rates of muscle type and cattle class. This preliminary research supports continued investigation of if and how NIR may be developed as a versatile in-field beef cattle phenotyping sensor.