Abstract
e classiication of grassland into four simple plant stand types (rich in grasses, balanced, rich in forbs or rich in legumes), based on the visual assessment of the yield proportion of grasses, legumes and forbs, has proved to be a simple and viable tool for the estimation of forage quality using tabulated values or statistical predictive models. is simple assessment method is currently part of routine knowledge transfer to stakeholders, being mainly farmers and advisors. However, the ability to correctly self-classify the plant stand is sometimes questioned by practitioners. In order to provide sound information on this matter, 632 assessments made by advisors and pupils of agricultural schools were compared to the actual yield proportion values of grasses, legumes and forbs obtained by separating and weighing the three species groups. About two thirds of the samples were correctly classiied. e results suggest that not all plant stand types are classiied with the same precision and that training level and an assessment of the vegetation aaer mowing improve accuracy of classiication.