forage/feed testing

whenever investigating feed options from technical sources it is always considered crucial to test your hay. othewise you can't know what you critters are getting and what they need to be supplemented with. I have never done this and always just made sure that growing or lactating goats had plenty of protein in the way of alfalfa and fed 'carbs' based on condition. if goats were on hay only I just watched their condition to determine if an individual needed a bit of a boost. but I am curious to learn more about testing feed for nutrient content. it could theoretically save some cash in the long run.

how accurate is it?
where do you send the samples?
how long does it take to get results?
how much does it cost?

I will be investigating this myself some but if anyone has any answers or first hand experience I would be interested to hear them!

Years ago I had some forage tested through our county cooperative extension office. As I recall, it wasn't terribly expensive and the results came back fairly quickly. How accurate they were, i don't know. I'm guessing the only way to know that would be to send samples to several different labs and compare results.