Technical Abstract: The lignocellulose in forage crops represents a second generation of biomass feedstock for conversion into energy-related end products. Some of the most extensively studied species for cellulosic feedstock production include forages such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). An advantage of using forages as bioenergy crops is that farmers are familiar with their agronomic management and already have the machinery, technology, and infrastructure needed to establish, manage, harvest, store, and transport them. Forage crops offer additional flexibility in management because they can be used for biomass or forage and the land can be returned to other uses or put into crop rotation. The billion-ton biomass vision for 2030 developed by the US-DOE and USDA envisions about a third of biomass would come from dedicated perennial energy crops (i.e., forages), requiring about 22.3 million ha of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture. Converting these lands to large scale cellulosic energy farming could push the traditional forage-livestock industry to ever more marginal lands. Furthermore, encouraging bioenergy production from marginal lands could directly compete with forage-livestock production.