Buyers often evaluate forage on appearance. Cows evaluate it on digestibility. The gap between the two is where money is made and lost.
The three numbers to request
Moisture, crude protein and neutral detergent fibre digestibility at 30 hours. If a supplier cannot provide all three from an accredited laboratory for the actual lot you are buying, you are buying appearance.
Moisture is a freight problem too
Every point of excess moisture is weight you pay to ship and mould risk you accept on arrival. We reject lots above specification rather than blend them down.