Who wrote this, and what we are not. XES Netting manufactures and sells bale net wrap. We are not forage agronomists, ruminant nutritionists, or veterinarians, and we have a commercial interest in round baling. Everything below is attributed to a named land-grant Extension publication or a peer-reviewed university trial, with crop, region, year and stage stated where the source states them.
Nothing here is a safety clearance. No stage, moisture, layer count, elapsed week, pH or laboratory value on this page clears a bale. Your own current analysis, your Extension forage specialist, your ruminant nutritionist and your veterinarian decide what is fed and how much. We say that once, here, rather than in every section.
Quick answer — cut triticale for baleage at boot stage, and no later. University of Georgia Extension: rye and triticale “should be cut no later than the boot stage.” University of Kentucky's ruminant Extension veterinarian and forage specialists put the small-grain group a notch tighter — they “have a narrow harvest window and should be cut before the boot stage.” A 2023 peer-reviewed winter-cereal study calls swollen boot (Zadoks 45) the “recommended harvest timing” for most winter cereals.
That is a fermentation rule, not a quality preference. Baleage is baled long-stem forage, not chopped silage: small grains start with less soluble sugar than corn, that sugar has to diffuse out of intact stems to reach the bacteria doing the fermenting, and once the head emerges the crop turns coarse and stemmy and traps air in the bale. Then hit the other four numbers — bale near 50% moisture, wrap within 2 hours, apply at least six layers of stretch film, wait 8 weeks, then have the lot analyzed.
The five numbers, and where each comes from
Extension guidance is not unanimous to the decimal, but on the five decisions that determine whether a triticale bale ferments, it converges. Here is the working answer, with the sources shown.
| Decision | Work to this | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest stage | Boot, or earlier | UGA Bulletin B1508; Arnold, Smith and Lea (Kentucky); Frontiers (2023), quoted above. |
| Moisture at baling | Around 50%; stay inside 50–60% | UGA B1508: 40% to 60% is workable, “but fermentation is best when whole plant moisture is 50% to 60%,” and forage “less than 40% or more than 65% moisture should not be baled for silage.” Ohio State: “between 45 to 55% moisture.” |
| Baling to wrapping | Within 2 hours; capacity for 4 | Ohio State: “wrap it within two hours of baling,” with “the ideal goal of wrapping the bales within four hours.” Purdue: “ideally within 4 hours.” |
| Film layers | Six minimum; use the upper end of Purdue's six-to-eight range for stemmy or awned material and longer storage | Purdue: “six to eight layers of good-quality, 1-mil-thick plastic.” Ohio State: “a minimum of 4 mils of plastic to seal out oxygen, requiring a minimum of six wraps.” UGA: four layers is “adequate for short-term storage” only. |
| Wait before feeding | 8 weeks, then run a fermentation profile | Kentucky: “To be safe, wait at least 8 weeks after wrapping to begin feeding baleage bales.” UGA: “at least 4 weeks to achieve a stable pH.” Ohio State: fermentation is “often taking 6 weeks.” Eight weeks is the conservative end. |
Two honesty notes. Whole-plant moisture is an estimate however you take it, and hand-feel, microwave dry-down and probe meters disagree. Build in margin instead of steering to the 40% and 65% edges. And on wrap delay, Kentucky writes that wrapping “may be delayed up to 12 hours without losing quality”; treat that as an outer tolerance, not a schedule. Ohio State measured the cost of drift: a 24-hour delay “increases internal bale temperature by 20 degrees Fahrenheit, decreases forage energy values, and raises NDF levels.”
A source defect worth flagging. Kentucky's fermentation-timing page carries a sentence whose trailing clause has lost its unit, and a second sentence on the same page is missing words entirely. We quote only the uncorrupted operative recommendation from that page — wait at least 8 weeks — and do not guess at the rest.
Why boot stage is a fermentation rule
UGA states the mechanism: early-maturity forage has higher soluble carbohydrate, “essential for proper ensiling,” while “overmature forages will not ferment well because they have lower soluble carbohydrate content and their coarse, stemmy nature traps more oxygen in bales.” Kentucky's Arnold, Smith and Lea pin it to the head: such forages have less sugar available “especially once the seed head has emerged.” A baler does not chop, so that sugar must move out of intact stems to reach the bacteria on the surface — and Ohio State adds the density half: “Baleage densities are much lower than properly packed silage, so the additional oxygen slows fermentation.”
Dr. Michelle Arnold, ruminant Extension veterinarian at the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, reports in a companion piece on inadequate baleage fermentation that failure to reach a low enough pH “occurs most often with small grains (rye, oats, wheat, barley).” Small-grain baleage is the hardest case in the category, and triticale is a small grain. It is also what trial crews do: South Dakota State's 2024 winter rye and triticale variety trial records that “Most of the plots were in the boot stage at time of harvest.”
What later maturity buys, and what it costs
| Cutting at | What the cited data shows | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Boot or earlier (baleage baseline) | University of Minnesota Extension: quality, crude protein and in-vitro digestible dry matter highest at boot, “when the forage yield is 38 to 42 percent of that at the dough stage.” | Spring-seeded small grains in Minnesota, 75 lb/ac added N. Triticale was not among the species tested; 38–42% is a result in that study, not a number for your field. |
| Past boot | Nebraska Extension: TDN 58% at boot, 55% at pollination, 49% at milk, 52% at soft dough; crude protein 18→14→12→10%, both as a percentage of dry matter. In a Texas oat clipping study, dry hay rose from 3,240 to 6,845 lb/ac between early boot and firm dough while crude protein fell from 18.4% to 8.7%. | 17 producer-submitted samples of mixed small grains from mixed Nebraska sites, 2021–2022 — observational and unreplicated. The Texas figures are irrigated oat, presented as a wheat proxy: not triticale, and not baleage. |
How to use it. Making dry hay or chopped silage, the tradeoff is open and your animal class decides it. Making baleage, treat boot as the boundary and the extra tonnage as what you give up. Passing boot is a decision to accept a harder ferment — make it deliberately, with your Extension forage specialist, not by drifting a week because the weather was awkward. Record the stage on a documented scale — Nebraska defines boot as “head is not out of the stem but close to the top leaf” — and note whether you used Feekes or Zadoks.
Wrapping: layers, film, and the usual mistakes
Count layers of film, not trips around the bale
This is the most common route to an under-wrapped bale. A revolution, a pass and a layer are three different things. Kentucky: “For an individual bale wrapper, the preferred method is the 2+2 system whereby two layers of wrap are applied during one rotation of the bale by a 50% overlapping of successive layers.” On that machine with a true 50% overlap, three rotations give six layers — on one that dispenses differently they do not, since “some types of wrappers dispense plastic differently than others.” Verify your machine's overlap and layers-per-rotation against its manual before you trust any layer count. For in-line wrappers, UGA gives a check at the machine: overlapping layers should be spaced “no more than 5 in. apart if using a 30 in. roll (30 in./6 layers = 5 in. between edges of layers),” and Kentucky adds: “apply 2-4 extra layers at these joints.”
Why six layers is a floor
Ohio State's requirement is in thickness, not turns: 4 mils to seal out oxygen, “requiring a minimum of six wraps to accomplish this over the entire bale,” and plastics “vary greatly in their stretchiness, which can reduce thickness by up to 25%.” Six layers of nominal 1-mil film, minus a quarter on the stretcher, lands near 4.5 mils — which is why a 4-mil target costs six wraps, and why UGA scopes four layers to short-term storage only. For coarse, stemmy or awned triticale that can poke the film, or for longer storage within current Extension guidance, work at the top of Purdue's six-to-eight-layer range. For an in-line wrapper, follow its manual and UGA's separate overlap and joint-spacing checks rather than assuming a universal eight-layer rule.
Details that decide whether layers seal. Ohio State: “Some stretch is necessary so that the plastic stays sticky and seals well between the layers of plastic,” and “[b]e cautious when wrapping in the rain as this will reduce the stickiness and allow more oxygen to penetrate.” Kentucky adds that “[t]he plastic used in baleage does not create an airtight seal,” and warns against applying “too little plastic or oxygen will penetrate the bale and cause spoilage, mold growth, and feed losses.”
Density and storage. Ohio State: “Your goal should be to achieve a minimum of 10 lbs. DM/ft3.” Purdue advises a well-drained site, frequent inspection for holes, and UV-protected tape — “Do not use duct tape.” UGA's forage team adds: do not spear wrapped bales, and do not leave opened silage exposed more than two days, or one day above 60°F.
The field risk gate: nitrate, ergot, mold, pesticides
Nitrate
Two Extension services name triticale directly, so the species question is settled. Montana State University Extension (MT200205AG, revised 03/24): “High nitrate has been reported in cereal grains (oats, rye, wheat, barley, triticale, spelt, etc.).” Ohio State Extension: accumulation is possible in “all cereal forages (oat, rye, triticale, wheat, barley, spelt, etc.).”
Testing is risk-triggered, not ritual. Run a routine forage analysis on every lot, and add a nitrate test when the season gives a reason. Montana State: elevated nitrate is “particularly suspect following environmental events such as drought, rain, hail, wind (lodging), frost, etc.” North Dakota State University Extension adds that after drought “nitrates are often high for several days following the first rain.” Ohio State gives two sampling points: test “before it is harvested, because if levels are high you can delay harvest to reduce the levels,” and test the stored forage before feeding.
Units and basis, because this is where people get hurt. A report reading 3,000 means two different things depending on what was measured. Nebraska Extension educator Ben Beckman: “Concerns for nitrate ion toxicity begin around 9,000 to 10,000 parts per million,” while “the danger level for nitrate nitrogen begins somewhere between 2,000 and 2,300 ppm.” The conversion between them — arithmetic, not a threshold — is NO3 ≈ NO3-N × 4.43. Confirm which one the laboratory reported, and whether the value is dry-matter or as-fed.
What ensiling does, and how slowly a bale does it. Ohio State is baleage-specific: “ensiling can reduce nitrate levels from 10 to 65% provided fermentation is good. But if the forage is initially very high in nitrates, the silage could yet contain toxic nitrate levels, so this is not an automatic fail-safe option.” The clock differs in a bale: “If nitrate levels are reduced in silage in about 3 weeks, it will take 6 or more for levels to be reduced in Baleage.” Drying is no substitute — Montana State reports nitrate in hay “usually remains constant or declines slightly in storage.” (Penn State's halving figure is scoped to warm-season annuals.) One genuine tension: nitrate is “generally higher in younger than more mature growth,” so the boot rule does not also minimize nitrate. The control there is testing a suspect crop.
Ergot
University of Illinois Extension (Report on Plant Diseases No. 107) names triticale directly: “Ergot is common on rye. Most varieties of barley, wheat, and triticale are susceptible.” No commercial varieties of those crops “have been developed that are resistant to ergot,” and varieties “with exposed florets which remain open for relatively long periods are the most susceptible ones.” So the control is timing, not variety: Illinois says to “[m]ow wild, escaped, and cultivated grasses before flowering.” That is the boot rule again: a crop cut at boot has not flowered, so sclerotia have not formed.
If ergot bodies do appear, University of Wisconsin-Madison's Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic scopes the response: “Be sure to also destroy the hay from the affected field. Do not use the hay as feed or for animal bedding.” That is the affected field, not your whole inventory. South Dakota State University Extension is direct that no safe feeding number exists: “it is difficult to establish a safe level due to variation in toxin levels and susceptibility in animals.” We do not reprint the published dose figures, because they are the numbers most likely to be misread as a pass mark. Contact your veterinarian instead.
Mold and mycotoxins
For a wrapped bale, UGA gives the field-side rule: surface white mold “rarely penetrates more than an inch into the bale” and “should not significantly harm the animal” if ingested — but “if red, blue, or green molds are present, exercise caution before feeding,” and “you may need to test for mycotoxins.” That is a stop sign, not a sorting system: UGA is explicit that “mold color is not a definitive way to identify toxic organisms,” and a white surface does not clear a bale by itself.
Mississippi State University Extension — whose prevention advice is dry-hay-scoped, centered on “baling at the right moisture (12 - 18%)” — gives the laboratory boundary for any forage: “The only way to determine the type and amount of spores and the presence of mycotoxins in hay is by taking a sample and sending it to a diagnostic laboratory for analysis.” It also reports horses are “at the highest risk of mold susceptibility among common livestock.” Fermentation reduces some toxins and not others: ensiling lowers nitrate at the partial rate above, but no source we verified shows that ensiling destroys mycotoxins or ergot alkaloids already present in the crop.
Herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides
We give no product names and no rates. The controlling document is the label on the container you actually used, which carries the grazing, harvest and feeding restriction intervals for that product on that crop. North Dakota State's veterinary diagnostic laboratory puts it from the sampling side: consider “any recent herbicide or pesticide applications and applicable livestock withdrawal intervals.”
Fermentation, pH, and the two diseases
Two diseases drive the safety case for wrapping properly, and they work differently. Purdue University veterinary pathologist Dr. Grant Burcham states the pH relationship precisely in Purdue Extension's article on listeriosis and botulism: “pH <4.5 inhibits growth” of Listeria, and producers should ensure a product pH below 4.5, “at which botulism bacteria cannot grow.” Note what that does not say.
- Listeriosis is an infection, not a toxin you can rule out with a number. Burcham describes it causing encephalitis, abortion or sepsis. Kentucky's Arnold reports that Listeria monocytogenes “grows in cool temperatures and at a pH greater than 5.4” and survives fermentation easily “if the pH never goes below 5” — exactly where a poorly fermented small grain lands.
- Botulinum toxin already formed is not undone by acid. Kentucky: “Type C botulism toxicity is usually associated with decomposing carcasses. This can be a problem if a dead animal is accidentally baled in the baleage or dry haymaking process.” Keep carcasses out of the windrow — and soil too, since “[h]eavy soil contamination of forage for any reason can be a risk factor for both of these diseases.”
The test to order. Arnold's minimum: “it is advisable to test the pH and moisture content of your baleage at the very least to insure adequate fermentation before offering it to cattle,” with “a fermentation profile requested.” UGA names the panel: “have a certified laboratory analyze a sample of the forage to determine the moisture, ash content, pH, concentrations of lactic and butyric acid, and ammonia-N,” and publishes the pattern a failed bale shows — moisture above 70%, ammonia above 15% of total nitrogen, butyric acid above 1% of dry matter, ash above 11%. Those figures are for your laboratory and veterinarian to interpret. A pH is one number from one sample of a bale that is not uniform; it is an indicator, not a clearance.
Horses: baleage is generally not recommended. UGA Extension states that baleage “generally is not recommended for horses” because of surface mold and, especially, their sensitivity to the Clostridium bacteria that cause botulism poisoning. Purdue's Burcham corroborates the reason: “Horses have a low threshold for botulism intoxication,” and preventive vaccination exists for horses but not for other livestock species. If you sell baleage, say this to horse buyers rather than leaving them to find out.
Keep the proportion. Arnold: “thousands of round bales are wrapped annually with only a few cases of botulism occurring; the risk of disease is low if one applies the proper management techniques.” The five numbers at the top of this page are those techniques.
Triticale versus cereal rye, and the awn question
Two named trials, each scoped to its sites and season, and neither picks a winner for your farm. The Maryland and New York study was organic, non-irrigated and randomized complete block — but poultry litter at 67 kg total N/ha went on in NY only, none in MD, so the sites are not fertility-matched. The South Dakota trial was randomized complete block, most plots at boot at harvest, with every quality value footnoted “NIR analysis from unreplicated, composite samples.”
| Measure | Beltsville MD + Aurora NY, 2014–2015 (peer-reviewed) | Wagner SD + Beresford SD, 2024 (Extension variety trial) |
|---|---|---|
| Yield and quality | At swollen boot (Zadoks 45), mean DM yield 2.2 Mg/ha for both rye and triticale in MD; 2.5 and 2.9 in NY. Relative forage quality 158 and 163 in MD, 156 and 157 in NY — barley ahead of both, at 180 and 179. | Mean DM yield: triticale 3.29 ton/ac at Wagner, 3.42 at Beresford; rye 3.34 and 2.87. Quality is not comparable across the two tables — separate trials, unreplicated composites. |
| Timing evidence | Mean days to swollen boot: MD 119 rye, 124 triticale; NY 132 and 138 — a 5- to 6-day difference at these sites in this season. | At Beresford, rye was harvested May 17 and triticale May 21; at Wagner both were harvested May 20. These are field-management harvest dates, not measurements of days to the same growth stage, so they cannot estimate a biological maturity gap. |
The comparable maturity measurement here is days to swollen boot — a 5- to 6-day difference at two sites in one season. The South Dakota report gives harvest dates, not days to a shared stage, so it does not supply another maturity-gap estimate. Grazing readiness is a different and larger endpoint: Nebraska's Jerry Volesky describes triticale as suited to “stretching grazing well into June if you don't mind starting two or three weeks later compared to rye.” Do not line any of these up as one universal number. On seed cost, note that the peer-reviewed trial seeded by seed density rather than weight, because triticale seed there was roughly 1.6 to 1.8 times heavier per seed than its reference rye.
Awns
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's Calvin Trostle reports that with awns largely absent, “potential issues with awns getting caught in livestock gums and throats, or causing eye irritation are minimized,” and that “[o]ther small grains that have beardless or awnletted varieties include triticale and barley.” But awnless is not better forage: quality at the same stage is “essentially the same,” Texas trials found “no difference in forage yield,” and his warning runs the other way — beardless wheat invites letting the crop head out further, so “growers and feeders are unwittingly accepting lower forage quality.”
Nebraska frames the risk around chopping: awned versus awnless “usually are not an issue since the forage is chopped; however, this might be an important consideration if the wheat forage is harvested as hay after the wheat is fully headed.” Baleage is baled, not chopped, unless your baler has pre-cutting knives — so awns stay intact, putting baleage on the hay side of that distinction rather than in the middle. Cutting at boot settles it: the crop has not headed and there are no mature awns. The direct published evidence here is on wheat, not triticale, and we found no source quantifying oral injury in cattle fed awned triticale baleage.
Net wrap and stretch film do different jobs
We sell net wrap, so read this with that in mind. Binding and wrapping are different jobs, and neither substitutes for the other.
Binding holds the bale together, and it protects the film. Purdue lists it as a step distinct from wrapping: “Use plastic or untreated sisal twine, or plastic net wrapping to bind the individual bales at baling. Avoid treated sisal twine.” UGA gives the baleage-specific reason net matters: “Net wrap is helpful in making baleage because it prevents the stems from puncturing the plastic.”
Stretch film is the oxygen barrier. Every oxygen-exclusion figure on this page refers to film, not net. Net wrap does not seal a bale. Do not reduce film layers because you used net wrap.
Both come off before animals eat. UGA: “Net wrap from the bales should be removed before placing the bale feeding ring around it in the paddock.” Nebraska Extension, citing North Dakota State research, explains why: neither plastic net wrap nor biodegradable twine is digested by rumen microbes, and net wrap pulled from the ration 14 days before harvest was “still in the rumen even after 14 days.” Nebraska's framing is measured — “it doesn't appear to be a health concern very often” — but remove as much twine and net as comes off easily.
Testing, selling honestly, and what this guide cannot do
The receiving laboratory's protocol governs. North Dakota State's veterinary diagnostic laboratory, for nitrate, asks for about 1 gallon of forage in a clean bag with no roots; for baled forage, “[u]se a hay probe to collect cores from at least 10 bales from the same cutting/lot.” Keep moist samples cold and ship promptly, because “nitrate levels can decrease during storage.” The reason applies to every analyte: levels “can vary widely within a field or hay lot.”
Do not assume your laboratory is certified. The National Forage Testing Association is blunt that laboratories differ: certified ones “have proven the ability to produce accurate test results on recognized reference methods.” Check yours against a current certification list, or ask which documented reference methods, proficiency program and quality-control procedures it runs for your analytes. Certification by one program is not the only defensible route, but being a laboratory is not a route at all.
What a seller can honestly state
- Facts about making the bale: crop and cultivar, field, harvest date, stage recorded and on which scale, moisture at baling and how it was estimated, film layers and wrapper type, wrap delay, storage duration, and any weather stress or pesticide application.
- Laboratory results, with the report attached: laboratory name, sampling protocol, method, dry-matter or as-fed basis, and for nitrate whether the result is NO3 or NO3-N. A number without those qualifiers is not a result.
- Nothing about safety. No seller can honestly state that a lot is safe for a given animal class, that it is free of nitrate, ergot, mold or mycotoxins, or that fermentation neutralized a toxin.
Limitations of this guide
- Some evidence is borrowed from other species and labeled as such. The Texas stage data is oat; the awn evidence is wheat; the Minnesota boot-yield ratio did not include triticale. A labeled transfer is still a transfer.
- The triticale-specific comparative data is two trials, each at two sites in one season. Single-season cultivar rankings are unstable.
- No image. We removed the photograph that previously headed this article: it was correctly licensed, but the species identification was the uploader's, and awned triticale, wheat and rye spikes are not reliably separable from a photograph. We would rather run no picture than one we cannot verify.
- Sources were retrieved and quoted in August 2026. Extension publications get revised; quotes are given exactly so you can check them.
Frequently asked questions
When should you cut triticale for baleage?
At boot stage, and no later. University of Georgia Extension states that rye and triticale should be cut no later than the boot stage, and University of Kentucky's ruminant Extension veterinarian and forage specialists write that small grains including triticale have a narrow harvest window and should be cut before the boot stage. A 2023 peer-reviewed study calls swollen boot, Zadoks 45, the recommended harvest timing for most winter cereals. The reason is fermentation rather than ration quality: baleage is unchopped, small grains carry less soluble sugar than corn, and once the head emerges the crop turns coarse and traps oxygen in the bale.
What moisture, wrap delay, layer count, and wait time should you plan on?
Bale near 50 percent moisture. University of Georgia states baleage can be made between 40 and 60 percent but that fermentation is best at 50 to 60 percent, and that forage below 40 or above 65 percent should not be baled for silage. Wrap within two hours, with four hours as the planning limit that sizes wrapper capacity. Apply at least six layers of stretch film; use the upper end of Purdue's six-to-eight-layer range for coarse, stemmy or awned material and longer storage, and follow the wrapper manual for in-line overlap and joints. Wait eight weeks, then order a fermentation profile.
Do you need to test triticale baleage for nitrate?
Run a routine forage analysis on every lot, and add a nitrate test whenever the season gives you a reason. Triticale is named as a nitrate accumulator by both Montana State University Extension and Ohio State University Extension, so the species is not a defense. Montana State says elevated nitrate is particularly suspect after drought, rain, hail, wind and lodging, or frost. Ohio State advises sampling before harvest if you suspect a problem and testing the stored forage before feeding. Ensiling can reduce nitrate 10 to 65 percent when fermentation is good, but baleage takes six or more weeks and the reduction is not a fail-safe; the finished lot still controls.
How do you manage ergot in a triticale forage crop?
Harvest or graze before flowering, and mow the grassy field margins before they head. University of Illinois Extension names triticale among the susceptible small grains and states that no commercial ergot-resistant varieties of barley, rye, wheat or triticale exist, so variety selection is not the control. Risk tracks how long and how openly the crop flowers. Cutting at boot handles this by itself, because the crop has not flowered and sclerotia have not formed. If ergot bodies appear, University of Wisconsin-Madison advises destroying the hay from the affected field. South Dakota State says no safe level can be established.
Can you feed triticale baleage to horses?
Generally, no. University of Georgia Extension states that baleage generally is not recommended for horses because of surface mold and, especially, their sensitivity to the Clostridium bacteria that cause botulism poisoning. Purdue University veterinary pathologist Dr. Grant Burcham corroborates the reason, noting that horses have a low threshold for botulism intoxication and that preventive vaccination is available for horses but not other livestock species. Mississippi State University Extension separately reports that horses are at the highest risk of mold susceptibility among common livestock. If you sell baleage, tell horse buyers this.
Does net wrap replace stretch film on a baleage bale?
No, and the two do different jobs. Binding holds the bale together through ejection, transport and loading, and University of Georgia notes that net wrap is helpful in making baleage because it prevents stems from puncturing the plastic. The oxygen barrier is the stretch film. Every layer figure in the Extension guidance refers to film: Purdue specifies six to eight layers of 1-mil plastic, and Ohio State requires a minimum of four mils, which takes a minimum of six wraps. Never reduce film layers because you used net wrap. Both come off before animals eat.
Evidence reviewed for this revision (retrieved August 2026). Peer-reviewed: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (2023). Land-grant Extension: University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, Purdue, Ohio State, Montana State, North Dakota State and its Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Penn State, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin-Madison, South Dakota State, Nebraska, Mississippi State, Texas A&M AgriLife and University of Minnesota. Standards body: National Forage Testing Association.
