Calculating accurate dry matter of forages is important for adjusting rations on a day-to-day basis. This study evaluated the accuracy of a hand-held near infrared (NIR) unit (Moisture Tracker, Digistar Inc., Fort Atkinson, WI) compared with conventional oven drying for 48 h at 60°C using 2 different forages: alfalfa silage and corn silage. Twenty frozen samples each of alfalfa silage and corn silage were obtained from a commercial feed testing laboratory (Rock River Labs Inc., Watertown, WI). The NIR unit was calibrated for each different forage type. Approximately 105 g of each sample was spread over an 8 cm × 8 cm area on brown paper and scanned with the NIR unit 30 times, each scan was in a different location on the sample. Upon the thirtieth measurement, the NIR unit would show the average dry matter content on its display. The average of the 30 scans was recorded as the dry matter content of the sample. Two 100-g subsamples of each forage sample were weighed into aluminum pans. The samples were then oven-dried for 48 h at 60°C and weighed back to calculate oven dry matter. Dry matter determined by NIR and oven were compared by t-test within each forage type. Dry matter determined for corn silage via the NIR (39.59%) were similar (P = 0.557) to those obtained from conventional oven drying (39.92%). Dry matter estimated from the NIR for alfalfa (48.6%) were greater (P < 0.0001) than obtained from oven drying (44.17%). The results of this experiment showed that dry matter values were similar with oven dry matter when analyzing corn silage, but were not similar when analyzing alfalfa silage.