Cumberland Valley Analytical Services recently subscribed to Bipea, a European laboratory proficiency testing organization. Bipea provides a number of check testing programs including ones for forages, feeds, and silages (www.bipea.org).
There is limited availability of check testing resources available from the U.S. The Bipea service provides us with a range of forage, feed, and silage materials that are validated for a large range of nutrients. This will allow us to validate our methods on an international level, supporting our service provision both in and outside of the U.S. By contrast, the NFTA program only certifies for protein, ADF, NDF, and dry matter on pre-dried and ground materials (primarily alfalfa hay) which is not consistent with the needs of the nutritional services industry.
Our evaluation of the first check sample lined up very well with certified results on a dehydrated alfalfa sample:
Download the Entire File to see the results.