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A Rapid Method for the Direct Chemical Determination of Water in Fermented Feeds¹

University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55101

Abstract

Water contents of 15 artificial silages and 18 natural silages were determined by a new chemical procedure which allows direct estimation of the water content and simultaneous correction for endogenous acids and bases. The chemical procedure and two oven drying techniques were evaluated by comparing the water contents determined by each method with the true water contents of 15 artificial silages. The chemical determination of water was an excellent procedure for estimating the true water contents of artificial silages containing up to 20% non-aqueous volatiles. The chemically determined water contents of 18 natural silages were approximately 2.4 and 2.7 percentage units lower than those determined by drying in a vacuum oven at 70 C or a forced-air oven at 105 C, respectively.

The chemical procedure involves reacting both an ethanolic silage extract and a blank with a water-sensitive reagent, incubation for 15 min. at 50 C, and titration with standard ethanolic HC1. This procedure is rapid, specific for water, simple to conduct and suitable for routine laboratory analyses.

¹ Paper No. 7640, Scientific Journal Series of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.