Corn plant evaluation

• Main Authors: CAMERER, III WILLIAM R, BOYD THOMAS R, BREINING, II JAMES A, BAJJALIEH NICHOLI L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.01.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TESTING

A corn plant is evaluated by a six-step method. The first step is to select a population of mature corn plants to be evaluated. A limited number of representative plants from the population are then selected. The representative plants are then harvested by cutting them near the ground. The plants are then ground into a homogeneous mixture. A sample of the homogeneous mixture is then analyzed in a near infrared spectrometer. The analysis is then compared with an existing correlation between near infrared analyses and wet-test chemistry tested nutritional compositional characteristics to predict the compositional characteristics of the corn plant population.