Little information is known on the effect of different types of balers on forage quality .A trial was conducted during the summer of 1999 to evaluate the forage quality of alfalfa hay baled with five different balers [a one-ton baler, two mid-sized balers, and two 3-tie balers (a side delivery baler and a center delivery baler)]. The alfalfa was baled under two moisture regimes: favorable moisture conditions and dry conditions. With the conditions and methods used in this study there was no difference in forage quality of alfalfa baled with the different balers. A second trial was conducted to document the variability in forage quality that occurs in 1-ton bales to help develop a sampling protocol. Results indicated more variation in forage quality within individual bales than between bales. There was no significant difference whether the front-end, middle, or butt-end was sampled so sampling the bale ends should be sufficient. The interaction between the position on the bale (i.e. the center vs. the edges) and the moisture under which the hay was baled was found to be important. These preliminary. results suggest that it may be preferable to sample a few different positions on the end of several bales than to sample just the center ofa high number of bales. Because of degree of variability observed in single cores, we recommend a minimum of 20 cores be used until more results are available. f