There needs to be some caution when feeding this forage to pregnant beef cows. If the forage is high in nitrites, it needs to be mixed with a forage that is much lower in nitrates or a forage that does not contain any nitrates. Using other forages, the nitrates can be diluted to safe levels and fed. Usually a table on the analysis will indicate the “safe” level for different classes of livestock. The easiest way to dilute the forage that has the nitrates is to grind and mix with the other forages. So if the test indicates that the forage has 2200 ppm nitrates, and the safe level for pregnant cows is 1000 ppm, you would need to dilute the forage with another feed to this level.
Keys to feeding a forage that contains nitrates:
• Dilute the forage that has nitrates to a safe level.
• Adapt cattle slowly to a forage that contains the high nitrates.
• Never allow cattle that are hungry access to forages that contain high nitrates.
