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Faunsdale, AL | Prussic acid/cyanide is a danger after frost when the grass (usually a sorghum or sorghum cross) has been stung or killed but has not dried down. After the frost event, when the grass has recovered and the stung parts are brown or it has died and dried down, prussic acid will have dissapated and the forage will be safe for cattle again. You can smell the frosted grass as soon as it thaws out the next morning, but I don't know if the smell is actually the prussic acid or whatl
The thing that might be a danger in his situation would be nitrate toxicity after a drought. If that land is a typical hayfield, it probably hasn't been overly fertilized in the last year, so nitrate levels in the grass are likely normal. If it has a history of nitrate, chicken litter, hog manure, etc applications recently, then I would cut some samples and send away for nitrate testing before turning cattle out onto drought stressed Johnsongrass, sorghum-sudan crosses etc.
If he can get cattle onto it and have them full of hay before turning them out, cattle can stand a lot. Turning out hungry, empty cattle onto new pastures with potentially high nitrate is really gambling. Pregnant cows are likely to abort before seing any other signs of toxicity due to nitrate poisining, but with high levels, un-acclimated cattle can die suddenly while cattle that are acclimated to the high-ish nitrate levels are unaffected. Lab results should have recommendations attached or search online for university recommendations once you get some numbers. | |
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Advice needed.....prussic acid.
