ISSUE FOCUS 50 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE March 2026 Forage quality cannot be reliably assessed by appearance alone. Accurate forage testing provides essential insight into nutrient composition, digestibility, and potential feeding risks, enabling producers to balance diets more precisely. Understanding key analytical parameters helps ensure that forage effectively supports microbial function, animal health, and productive performance. Forage is the foundation of the herbivore diet and the primary source of essential nutrients to support body metabolism and productivity. How well a forage meets the nutritional requirements of a given animal will depend on the nutrient content of the forage being consumed and the amount of forage consumed. The ability of a forage to provide nutrients within a reasonable intake is characterized as “forage quality”. Most animal owners assess forage quality qualitatively through sensory parameters of color, smell, visual, and tactile estimation of maturity (leaf-to-stem ratio; rigidity of stems). An example of the limitation to visual differentiation of forage quality is provided in Figure 1. Producers' use of forage testing through time-tested chemical parameters is limited for a variety of reasons, including costs, frequent forage purchases, and limited interpretive capabilities. However, more complex analytical procedures and biologic parameters are needed to truly differentiate between a higher and lower quality forage and their potential role in meeting microbial and animal needs. A properly balanced diet that meets the needs of the microbial flora and animal is essential to maintaining good health and productivity. An investment in forage testing is the single best way to achieve this end. This article will provide an overview of forage testing and its interpretation as it applies to feeding forage-consuming production animals. GETTING STARTED: SAMPLING AND LABORATORY SELECTION Our ultimate goal in spending money to have forage testing completed is to have usable information on nutrient composition to provide a more complete and balanced diet for the animals. The adage “garbage in, garbage out” is applicable here; if we do not obtain a representative sample and have appropriate testing performed, the obtained numbers will not be of much use in fine-tuning your diets. A good place to start is referring to information provided on the National Forage Testing Association (NFTA) website (www.foragetesting.org). Here you can find information on hay probes to collect good samples and appropriate sampling methods to obtain accurate results. This organization has a searchable list of certified laboratories on their website. Use of a certified laboratory provides more confidence in the results obtained. Additionally, these labs are very willing to retest unusual results to confirm the numbers. IDENTIFYING FORAGE QUALITY THROUGH TESTING Dr. Robert Van Saun Professor and Extension Veterinarian Penn State University
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