While most of Dairy One’s Forage Laboratory serves domestic customers in the United States, we do have a group that focuses on working with customers globally. The Network of Affiliated Labs connects laboratories to the extensive Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) calibration library that is used in the Forage Lab. From China to Italy, these labs work to provide Dairy One quality analysis to customers while reducing shipping costs.
Although the Forage Lab does work with customers internationally to import forage samples to the Ithaca, New York offices, the Network of Affiliated Labs connects these customers to labs in their own country. That saves not only money but time too. But how do the labs provide the NIR calibrations that the Dairy One Forage Lab uses?
Calibrations are accessed through the NIRS instruments used in the Affiliate Labs and Dairy One. There is a devoted team in the Forage Lab that works with these other labs on a daily basis. Their responsibilities include responding to emails, checking results from forage analysis, and developing new calibrations. Though it sounds simple, many of the customers speak and write in different languages, so the team uses various tools to ensure clear communication.
These labs will also send samples to the Forage Lab in Ithaca, NY for additional analyses and wet chemistry testing. From soybean meal to hay, the team will get packages containing many types of feed used on farms across the globe. Analyzing these samples helps the lab and builds up the Feed Composition Library used by many people. There are many types of feeds listed in this library, and people use this information for university studies or building a ration for an animal.
In addition to helping current customers, the team is also always working with potential new clients. This work involves many email communications about the forage analysis instruments used, what calibrations they will need, and what samples are usually tested in the lab. There are also subscription costs that are hammered out. Overall, this team supports labs across the globe and in many different time zones. Their work helps customers receive forage analysis in a timely manner and provides NIR analysis to many people. For more information about this team, check out this web page or email [email protected].