High-quality hay is crucial to the milk production of the state's dairy cattle. In recent years, however, the advent of new testing procedures and new jargon has created confusion in the industry as to what constitutes "quality." The California Hay Testing Consortium was formed recently to combat the problem by "re-standardizing" testing methods. The group consists of laboratories that test forages in California, university researchers and representative dairy nutritionists and hay sellers. The consortium's third meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at the Piccadilly Inn in Fresno. "It's crucial that we improve the accuracy and reliability of industry testing procedures," says Dan Putnam, a Cooperative Extension agronomist in the UC Davis agronomy and range science department. "We've already developed consensus on a few issues but much more needs to be done. Significant issues related to consistency of lab methods, near-infrared spectrometry, hay sampling, quality control and forage quality need to be addressed."