To date systems for estimating pasture quality have relied on destructive sampling with measurement completed in a laboratory which was very time consuming and expensive. Results were often not received until after the pasture was grazed which defeated the point of the measurement, as farmers required the information to make decisions about grazing strategies to effectively use pasture and provide high quality nutritious feed for  growing livestock. The objective of this in-field approach is to produce measurement results in near real time. These methods were tested using a range of proximal sensors and statistical methodologies.

The following range of pasture quality parameters have been considered; Crude protein (CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), ash, dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD), lignin, lipid, metabolisable energy (ME) and organic matter digestibility (OMD).

The sensing methodologies used include, a hyperspectral sensor (ASD Fieldspec Pro™ FR), a multispectral Cropscan™ 16 channel passive sensor as well as  two and three channel active sensors, Greenseeker™  and Crop Circle ACS - 470™.