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Two questions

Nicky

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
3,681
Location
N.E. Oregon
First off...our pea/oat/barley hay tested quite high in nitrate this year. In the level recomended to feed no more than 35% of the diet. The county agent said a guy last year had some that was considerably higher and he slowly acclimated his pregnant cows to it and fed it all winter with no problems. Just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this. We've never had a problem before, but always test the grain hay. Interestingly, this was irrigated, and our dryland triticale tested really low :???:

Second, we are thinking of putting our newly weaned calves on our alfalfa field. It's had several pretty good frosts but still looks pretty good. Figured we'd feed them alfalfa and grass hay in the corral, give them bloat blocks, and grass hay in the field. It is one big field with grain stubble/green up, alfalfa, and some bunch grass.

Thanks :)
 
I would think the calves would do fine out grazing if they weren't put out hungry. Maybe a good idea to have some dry hay even just a few bales set out for dry matter.
Not much experience with high nitrates but check out some of the extension sites on the web. Sask Ag should have some advice.
 
Nicky, I've fed oat hay with moderate to high nitrate levels, as long as you stick with the recommended ration level or lower you should be fine. BMR advice for your calves sounds right on to me.

As far as acclimating pregnant cows to high nitrate hay.....I'd sure be cautious. I've always heard that nitrate poisoning is accumulative in cattle, increasing above the recommended level in the ration could be bad news.

How high was the nitrate level?
 
Triangle Bar said:
Nicky, I've fed oat hay with moderate to high nitrate levels, as long as you stick with the recommended ration level or lower you should be fine. BMR advice for your calves sounds right on to me.

As far as acclimating pregnant cows to high nitrate hay.....I'd sure be cautious. I've always heard that nitrate poisoning is accumulative in cattle, increasing above the recommended level in the ration could be bad news.

How high was the nitrate level?

2450ppm NO3-N, seems like the spooky part of feeding a reccomended percentage (don't have a feeder, just flake it off the wagon) is how do you know one isn't going to eat her fill of the grain hay?
 
Nicky said:
2450ppm NO3-N, seems like the spooky part of feeding a reccomended percentage (don't have a feeder, just flake it off the wagon) is how do you know one isn't going to eat her fill of the grain hay?

Ouch, that is high! I don't have TMR mixer/feeder either, just flake it off on the ground. What I did was feed the recommended percentage every other day. The theory being some individuals who might over eat wouldn't get double dosed the next day. The day in between I would feed low nitrate hay(in my case it was rain damaged Alfalfa). I don't know if that is something you could do or not.

Hope this is of some help. I copied this table off of one of my hay tests...it's a good reference to use. All the Best.

Rating: ppm NO3-N Hazard rating:
-------------- --------- -------------------
Very low 0- 700 Considered safe
Low 701-1400 Usually safe
Medium 1401-2100 Potentially toxic
High 2101-2800 Very dangerous
Very high 2801-3500 Extremely dangerous
Extremely high over 3500 Extremely dangerous
 

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