This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of NIRS to predict gas production (GP) kinetics for maize ear and stover. Two approaches were applied to characterize GP kinetics: 1. describing GP profiles by fitting an exponential model and 2. by calculating GP for various incubation intervals. In the first approach, NIRS prediction equations could explain a high proportion of variability related to the fermentation rate (c), the asymptotic GP (A), and the lag phase (L) of ear samples in the calibration sub set (R²: 0.81-0.87), while for stover predictive ability was inferior. Validation showed satisfactory results only for the fermentation rate (R²: 0.81-0.88). In the second approach NIRS calibration was acceptable for GP in several incubation intervals, but validation showed satisfactory results for intervals 3-7, 7-12, and 7-16 h of stover samples only (R²>0.74). Further research is required to elucidate potential sources of error before obtaining robust NIRS equations.