You've reached the Virginia Cooperative Extension Newsletter Archive. These files cover more than ten years of newsletters posted on our old website (through April/May 2009), and are provided for historical purposes only. As such, they may contain out-of-date references and broken links.

To see our latest newsletters and current information, visit our website at http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/.

Newsletter Archive index: http://sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/

Virginia Cooperative Extension -
 Knowledge for the CommonWealth

Nitrate Toxicity A Real Risk This Year

Livestock Update, September 1998

Mark Wahlberg, Extension Livestock Specialist, Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Tech

Nitrate is accumulated in plants that undergo such stress that they cannot convert the nitrogen taken up from the soil into plant protein. It can also occur when not stressed when the plant is provided such an abundance of available nitrogen that its own metabolism is overwhelmed with the supply. This second situation is not common and is seen only when forages are overfertilized due to application errors, equipment malfunctions, or overapplying liquid manures.

The typical stress causing nitrate toxicity is drought. Crops often found with high nitrate levels are corn, sorghum, sudangrass, and millet because these plants are normally fertilized well with nitrogen. However, nitrate toxicity occurs in perennial grasses and in some fast-growing summer weeds.

When the animal consumes excess nitrate, it is converted to nitrite, which is then absorbed across the rumen wall into the bloodstream. Nitrite takes the place of oxygen in the hemoglobin molecule, which is the compound that carries oxygen throughout the body. Therefore, the animal becomes oxygen-starved. Symptoms include rapid breathing, unthriftiness, and poor appetite. Nitrate toxicity can cause abortions and offspring at birth that are weak. The blood of a nitrate poisoned animal is dark brown as opposed to the bright red of a normal animal.

Nitrate accumulates in the lower portion of a plant. It drops to a normal level in plants fairly soon after they have resumed normal growth. Three to five days is often long enough. Ensiling is a good way to reduce nitrate in a feed because the microbial activity occurring during fermentation converts nitrate to safe compounds. Hay-making does not reduce nitrate levels, though.

Feeds thought to be suspect should be sampled and analyzed for nitrate. Many labs, including the Virginia Tech Forage Testing Lab, do this work. Fresh or moist samples should be delivered promptly to the lab to reduce the chance of nitrate loss or conversion. If this cannot be done, samples should be sealed in plastic bags and frozen before shipping.

The table below gives nitrate values for feeds and relative safety as feed for livestock.

Nitrate Ion, %Nitrate Nitrogen, ppmFeeding Recommdendation
0-0.44<1000Safe under all conditions
0.44-0.661000-1500Safe for Non Pregnant.
Max 50% of DM for Pregnant Animals
0.66-0.881500-2000Max 50% of DM
0.88-1.542000-3500Max 40% of DM. Not for Pregnant Animals
1.54-1.763500-4000Max 25% of DM. Not for Pregnant Animals
Over 1.76>4000Do Not Feed



Visit Virginia Cooperative Extension