NorFor Scientific Advisory Group

NorFor R&D meet with researchers from four universities: Agricultural University of Iceland (LBHI), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Norwegian university of Life Science (NMBU) and Aarhus University (AU). We call the researcher that participate the NorFor Scientific Advisory Group (SAG).

The intention with SAG is to highlite topics that are important in ruminant nutrition and important for the NorFor model.

At the SAG meetings, NorFor receives input from the researchers, discuss current topics and start collaborative projects. The topics mainly concern measuring technology, modelling, data sources and nutrient requirements for cattle.

The SAG meeting in 2026. From the left: Nicolaj Ingeman Nielsen (NorFor/Seges), Maria Åkerlind (NorFor/Växa), Mogens Larsen (AU), Bengt-Ove Rustas (SLU), Jon Kristian Sommerseth (NorFor/Tine), Egil Prestløkken (NMBU), Martin Riis Weisbjerg (AU), Niels Bastian Kristensen (AU), Ingunn Schei (NorFor/Tine), Mikaela Lindberg (SLU). Photo: Johanna Karlsson (NorFor/Växa)

The researchers are discussing what analytical methods NorFor should recommend to commercial laboratories and use for the data in feedstuff table. There is consensus among the researchers to use, for example:

• Dry matter temperature of 60°C for forage samples.
• In situ method. All from material and pore size of the nylon bags, handling of the samples, durance in the rumen to calculation for the rumen degradation characteristics of NDF and crude protein.
• Method of neutral detergent fibre, also called aNDFom, using Merten’s method (ISO 16472:2006 IDT) where sample is treated with sodium sulphate and amylase and the result is presented as ash free.
• Methods and calculations for estimating organic matter digestibility in vivo.

At the latest meeting in 2026 individual amino acids, the energy value of protein, improved dry matter determination using wet-NIR technology, and methods for analysing digestibility and degradation rates was discussed.

Other important projects that has been implemented in NorFor as a result of the discussions in SAG are:

• The starch degradation model was developed by the team from AU (Razzaghi et al., 2016).
• The estimation of indigestible NDF for forage samples was made in collaboration with SLU and AU.
• Analysis method of NEL20 in compound feed was developed by NMBU and AU (Alvarez et al., 2021; 2022).