Determination of the Dependences of the Nutritional Value of Corn Silage and Photoluminescent Properties

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled "Determination of the dependences of the nutritional value of corn silage and photoluminescent properties " is devoted to assessing the prospects of using visible-range photoluminescence for determining dry matter content, total protein content, and NDF using a portable device in field conditions. The obtained results may open up possibilities to use of the proposed method for determining the nutritional value of corn silage. However, I cannot recommend the manuscript for publication in this form, corrections are required. My comments and recommendations are below.

-        The idea of the research seems to be interesting. But what is the innovation of this article? Please highlight it in the article.

-        There are paragraphs containing only one or two sentences.

-        Line #17, the full expression of the abbreviate “NDF” should be provided

-        If possible, the preparation steps of prepared sample should be provided.

-        How many replicates have been done for each assay? Please indicate it in the related sections. The authors should conduct in triplicate and provide the error bar.

-        Line #223-230, the content seems to be similar to that of the previous paragraph.

-        All coefficients of determination are smaller than 0.9. The authors should make evidence for the conclusion that photoluminescence can be used to determine the dry matter content/moisture, total protein content, and ADF content in corn silage (line #383-385).

-        I highly recommend the authors to compare their results with previous studies.

Quality of English Language is fine.

Author Response

Dear reviewer! We tried to make changes to our manuscript as correctly as possible, in accordance with your wishes.

Also in this letter we want to answer all the questions that you had during the review.

1. Among the existing studies, the most common are manuscripts that reveal the essence of spectroscopy in the near-infrared range (700 - 1400 nm) as a tool for determining the nutritional value of agricultural feed. The optical method we propose is based on photoluminescence in the range (340–780 nm), this is a fundamentally different optical phenomenon associated with scanning not only surface, but also deeper layers of plant biomass, which provides a more representative assessment of nutritional value.

2. We have supplemented the paragraphs with brief content and more detailed sentences.

3. We gave a decoding of the abbreviation “NDF” in line No. 17.

4. In Table 1 we entered data characterising the greatest dispersion during the measurement process, in the amount of 8 values for each indicator. The experiment involved repeating measurements up to 59 times for each sample.

5. Since the mass of consumed corn silage in the general composition of the feed mixture is up to 20 kg per day, the resulting errors in the analysis of nutritional value will not significantly affect the final result, in particular, they will not violate the critical norms of nutrient consumption. At the same time, we use approximation of values, which significantly increases the reliability of the obtained values.

6. We have significantly improved the text of our study, including in the discussion section, and took into account the results of previous studies.

7. We have excluded the repetition of information in lines 223-230 and the previous paragraph.

With best wishes, Evgeniy A. Nikitin.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript contains some very interesting research on maize silage. They need to be completed.

Comments

Materials and methods need to be supplemented with the place where the research was carried out and the period during which it was carried out.

Please characterise the material examined. How were the samples taken? How many samples were taken for testing, etc.

Figures, please indicate author of figures

Table 1. It contains measurements of only 8 humidities, which in my opinion is too few to draw lines of relationship in the following figures.

The discussion is very modest and needs to be considerably expanded.

Conclusions should be supplemented with suggestions for further research.

References, please remove publications older than 10 years. For some publications, the year of publication is missing.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, We have tried to make changes to our manuscript as correctly as possible, in accordance with your wishes.

Also in this letter we want to answer all the questions that you have during the review.

 

1. We have added the necessary information to the appropriate section.
2. In the materials and methods section, we added information about how corn silage was sampled, that we carried out up to 59 measurements to build correlation dependencies, while Table 1 included values with the maximum spread from the average for representativeness.
3. We have significantly improved the discussion section.
4. We have supplemented the conclusions in accordance with your wishes.
5. We have updated the list of references in accordance with your wishes.
6. The authors of the drawings are given in the Author Contributions section, in accordance with the MDPI requirements.

 

With best wishes, Evgeny Nikitin.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx