Ever wonder about the nutritional value of your livestock forage or feed? Or what exactly is killing your tree?

The University of Tennessee Soil, Plant and Pest Center can help you figure it out. For a modest fee, the center can perform chemical analyses of forages and farm-produced grains as well as soil tests and plant disease and insect pest identification.

The basic forage test includes analyses for moisture content, dry matter, ADF (acid detergent fiber), NDF (neural detergent fiber), TDN, net energy, RFV, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. The cost is $10 per sample.

The "basic forage plus" test includes the analyses in the basic test as well as analyses of copper, sulfur, manganese and zinc content. The basic forage plus test costs $20 per sample.

Home-produced grains may be analyzed for $15 per sample, and the test includes moisture content, dry matter, ADF and crude protein.

Rations-based feed analyses are offered by request.

The center also provides plant tissue analyses, plant disease diagnoses, pest identification and soil testing. For information on how to submit samples for analyses, go online to http://soilplantandpest.utk.edu/.

The UT Soil, Plant and Pest Center is a program of UT Extension. UT Extension operates in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties as the off-campus division of the UT Institute of Agriculture. An educational and outreach organization funded by federal, state and local governments, UT Extension, in cooperation with Tennessee State University, brings research-based information about agriculture, family and consumer sciences, and youth and community development to the people of Tennessee where they live and work.