The basis of any sound animal nutrition program is evaluating what nutrients the animals are consuming.  When it comes to ruminant animals, like dairy cattle, as much as 60% of their diet comes from the forages they consume.  Forage testing on a regular basis is important to formulating a balanced ration for your dairy herd.

Rock River Labs now has a forage testing facility in Colby, Wisconsin. This gives livestock producers in North Central Wisconsin a better option for testing their forages. Medford Cooperative has a sample drop box placed at location on E651 Gravel Road in which samples are picked up and delivered to Colby every morning. This allows anyone who has a forage sample that needs testing to bring it to the drop box, fill out the sample form, and in most cases, have results the same day.

Rock River Labs picks up the forage samples daily around 9:00 AM and has a very quick turnaround time for the results. Rock River Labs was established in 1975 and has been certified by the National Forage Testing Association, FSA, and Minnesota and Wisconsin DATCAP as an accurate and dependable forage and soil testing laboratory. If you have any questions on testing packages, please call us. You can also stop at the Feed Mill and we will be able to answer any questions you may have.

– Dairy Production Specialist