Technical Note: Assessment of sampling technique from feeders for copper, zinc, calcium, and phosphorous analysis

Diet treatments were arranged in a split-plot design with the whole-plot consisting of 1 of 6 concentrations of dietary Cu (22 to 134 mg/kg total Cu) and the subplot using 1 of 2 sampling techniques (probe vs. hand grab). A total of 6 feeders per treatment were sampled using a brass open handle probe. The probe was inserted into the feeder 4 times to obtain a 900 g of sample. The hand-collected samples were obtained by inserting a bare hand into the feeder approximately 8 times to obtain a 900 g of sample. Within a feeder and sampling technique, subsamples (200 g) were created by using a sample splitting device. In addition to the 6 individual feeder samples, a subsample (33 g) from each individual feeder was pooled within dietary treatment and sampling technique to form a single composite sample (200 g). This process was repeated until 4 individual composite samples were created for each diet and sampling technique. Next, all samples were ground through a centrifugal mill and submitted for mineral analysis in duplicate for Cu, Zn, Ca, and P analysis. Results indicated variability when sampling feeders with a probe were reduced (P = 0.013) for Cu and marginally reduced (P = 0.058) for Ca when compared with hand-sampling. However, no evidence for differences was detected among sampling techniques for Zn and P for the individual feeder analysis. When samples were pooled from 6 feeders to form a single composite sample, there was no evidence for differences detected among sampling techniques for Cu, Zn, Ca, and P analysis. From these results, sampling frequency calculations were determined to assess sampling accuracy within a 95% confidence interval. Results indicated that the number of feeders or composite samples required to analyze was less for Cu, Zn, Ca, and P analysis when using a probe compared with a hand sampling. In summary, sampling with a probe is associated with less variability on an individual sample basis, but when individual samples are pooled to form a composite sample, there was no evidence for difference among sampling techniques. Our results suggest samples collected for these analyses with a probe and composited would be the best option to minimize variation and analytical costs.