Nitrates

 

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I don’t know as much about the subject of nitrates in forage or in water as a lot of folks in the MHC, so I thought I’d see how I could tie the subject into soil fertility.  My thought was to draw parallels between how plants and animals obtain nitrogen and what they do with it, but then I sort of went off on another trail.

 

Apparently plants and animals get their nitrogen pretty much through the same methods, from the air they breath and the things they eat.  And they pretty much do the same thing with nitrogen in the presence of all the playing pieces; they make protein.  Plants make proteins that animals can’t make, but that they need, so if nitrogen in the plant isn’t getting processed into protein, the animal suffers.

 

On to nitrates.  I ran across an interesting read in the form of a book online entitled “Equine Clinical Nutrition” by Lon D. Lewes, 1995. 

 

Nitrogen, in the form of nitrate is what the plant converts into protein.  (By now you recognizes this statement as grossly incomplete. Protein only contains 16% nitrogen!!!) Anything that increases its uptake or decreases its conversion to protein increases the plant’s nitrate content.  Stress can include drought, hot weather, early frost, hail damage or long periods of cloudy weather. 

 

Not a whisper about missing minerals.

 

Sudden changes in growing conditions cause plants to take up nitrate faster than they can convert it to protein.  These plants at this time as well as stubble remaining after harvest may be high in nitrate, especially if it begins to grow, and thus takes up nitrate, then has its growth stopped by a frost or sudden decrease in temperature before it has had a chance to convert nitrate to protein.

 

Under adverse weather conditions, stalks of fescue and particularly Sudan grasses can contain high levels of nitrate.

 

Alfalfa, timothy, legumes, and brome grass probably never accumulate enough nitrate to be toxic to either horses or ruminants.

 

That statement ought to raise an eyebrow or two in the MHC.

 

I’m SO pleased to have shared this information after I told you how to calculate the “funny protein” in your Crude Protein report.  The 17:1 nitrogen/sulphur in my alfalfa may not have caused “toxicity” but it may have been doing a lot of mischief that isn’t classified “toxicity.”  Be sure to read Brunetti’s information about Blood Urea Nitrogen and also Milk Urea Nitrogen – MUN if you are interested in making ewe’s milk cheese.