Forage density effect on sound insulation properties

One of the main parameters affecting forage management and quality is density. Existing methods used for measuring physical properties of forage involve costly destructive analysis. A frequent and appropriate control of the forage density is required for optimizing the management of silage, hay and straw production; therefore, there is a need to develop a new measurement method. The sound insulation properties of a material are governed by its physical structure. Based on this, an inexpensive, non-destructive acoustic measurement method using sound insulation properties was developed to determine forage density. The method has been used to analyse the correlation of the density with the sound insulation spectra produced by small-scale models of hay, silage and straw. Results show that the sound insulation spectra of forage have a high correlation with the density and a significant congruence with the physical structure of the targeted forage types. The findings are highly relevant for innovative applications in agriculture, animal nutrition and bio-energy production in terms of material properties monitoring, materials classification and quality determination.