Aug. 14, 2016 09:59 PM

Calibrate® forage quality tests provide highly accurate digestibility and quality information.

This item has been supplied by a forage marketer and has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hay & Forage Grower.

Calibrate® Technologies announces an agreement with Dairyland Laboratories, Inc., to offer Calibrate® forage quality tests test for starch and fiber digestibility as well as Calibrate® RFQ. Calibrate® forage quality tests provide highly accurate digestibility and quality information to help improve forage performance in a dairy herd’s ration.

“The agreement between Dairyland Laboratories and Calibrate® Technologies will expand service reach, reduce the impact of nutrition variation in feedstuffs and allow producers to obtain more value from forages – grown or purchased,” says Mike Mensing, licensing and operations manager, Calibrate® Technologies.

Calibrate® forage quality tests evaluate all starch and fiber components individually. This helps nutritionists and farmers make small changes in the diet, which can deliver significant results and maximize milk production.

In addition, Calibrate® RFQ provides a more robust and stable value for maximum consistency from lab to lab across the U.S. Improved precision provides reliable forage quality insights to maximize your investment whether you are formulating a ration or buying and selling alfalfa.

“With Dairyland’s network of laboratories, Calibrate® forage quality test users will benefit by not having to ship samples to a central laboratory and therefore receive results in a more timely manner,” says Dave Taysom – Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. “These tests will be available at our Arcadia and Stratford, Wis., and St. Cloud, Minn. locations.”

Assuring accuracy with every result, Calibrate® forage quality tests are backed by more than 10 years of experience with commercial dairies. In addition, Calibrate® forage digestibility results are reinforced with more than 90,000 in vitro lab tests and 90,000 wet chemistry tests which help testing laboratories provide a more precise measurement for fiber and starch ruminal digestibility.

Calibrate® forage quality tests are recommended for use with all forages, especially with genetically enhanced reduced lignin HarvXtra® alfalfa. Outstanding accuracy in measuring quality in alfalfa comes with every digestibility and Calibrate® RFQ test, allowing farmers and nutritionists the ability to reduce ration variation.

For more information on rumen degradable starch and fiber testing as well as Calibrate® RFQ contact Calibrate® Technologies at: (800) 635-5701 or www.calibratetechnologies.com.

To start using Calibrate® forage quality tests, contact Dairyland Laboratories at 608-323-2123 or www.dairylandlabs.net.

Calibrate® Technologies provides the dairy industry’s first rapid starch and fiber test with an online nutritional calculator to help provide ration recommendations to nutritionists and producers on rumen digestibility of forages and feedstuffs. For additional information, visit www.CalibrateTechnologies.com or call (800) 635-5701.

Dairyland Laboratories, Inc. is a full-service agricultural testing laboratory. Established in 1958, the company has grown to become one of the most complete agricultural testing laboratories in the upper Midwest. Headquartered in Arcadia, Wis., it is an independent, full service laboratory offering extensive analysis of feeds, forages, soil, plant tissues, manure, water, molds, and mycotoxins.

Producers can benefit from Calibrate® Technologies patented processes (see, e.g., US Patent 8,940,322). Using Calibrate® Technologies’ ruminal starch and NDF digestibility data, dietary levels of rumen digested starch (RDS) and rumen undigested NDF (RUNDF) can be calculated. Further employing Calibrate® Technologies’ patented processes and knowhow, dietary RDS and RUNDF levels can be manipulated to affect feed intake, digestibility and feed efficiency.