Nitrates and drought

摘要

Drought has made it a very rough year for many herds in the U.S. In the midst of this scramble for forage in drought areas, we need to be careful about where feeds originate and the growth conditions in those areas. I've talked with veterinarians whose clients are experiencing some very high nitrate concentrations in drought-stressed feed crops.Of most concern are cereal grasses - oats, wheat, barley and rye; crop residues such as milo and corn stalks; and also feed crops such as sudangrass and sorghum-sudan hybrids. Some weeds also can accumulate very high levels of nitrates, including Canadaand Russian thistle, lamb's quarter, pigweed, fire-weed, dock, kochia, smartweed and johnsongrass.