Drying Experiment

Researcher

Patrick C. Hoffman, Marshfield Dairy Center

Description

A dairy scientist wished to examine the effect of forage sample drying technique on ruminal disappearance of dry matter and crude protein. He gathered 30 uniquely different forage (silage) samples, roughly ten (9-11) per period. Each sample was divided each into sub-samples for drying by three different methods (microwave, freeze dryer and convection oven). There were three Holstein cows available with canulas (openings into the stomach for experimental observation), but each cow's rumen could only hold about 150 grams of forage. The scientist wanted to make sure that each sample was exposed to all nine combinations of the three cows and three drying techniques. Therefore, each drying sub-sample was further divided into 5 gram portions which were randomly assigned to the cows. The percentages of dry matter (dm) and crude protein (cp) remaining after canulation were measured, although some portions were inadvertently destroyed.

SAS Data Analysis

drying.sas

drying.dat

drying.prt