Winter forage is one of the most rapidly expanding crop acres across the Midwest and Northeast today. The incredibly high quality forage and profitable economic returns from application of the most basic management practices has made this the crop to grow on both dairy/livestock farms, and farms selling forages. With the critical help from New York Farm Viability Institute, Dr. Ketterings at Cornell, and NY farmers, we have found that the nutrient management of this fall planted, spring harvested, crop is very different from normal spring planted forages and even fall planted grain crops. To that end we have been testing planting dates and fall/spring nitrogen rates to determine the optimum combination for both yield and protection of the environment