Their gestation and even lactation diets are made up of nearly all forages. Fortunately, nitrate testing of forage samples is not expensive, and if a winter feed inventory is discovered to contain toxic levels of nitrates, effective measures can be taken to correct beef herd feeding programs that reduce most nitrate threats.

I was taught a long time ago that nitrates accumulated in many types of forages usually caused by bad weather, despite a small number of forages that are known as good weather high-nitrate accumulators. Some of those damaging weather conditions/forage combinations are as follows:

• Hailed cornfields, alfalfa and oat crops.
• Drought overshadowing a cornfield.
• Cool, cloudy and wet growing season in alfalfa and other legume crops.
• Early frost in immature cornfields, oats, alfalfa and other legumes.
• Excessive wind that blows over corn plants and causes severe lodging in cereals.

When sunny weather prevails between timely rain showers, nitrates and other nitrogen compounds are naturally taken up by the plants’ roots and transported through the stems and finally to the leaves.

Photosynthesis converts these nitrates into leaf protein. However, when one of the above bad weather conditions interferes with nature, nitrates have literally nowhere to go and tend to accumulate to toxic levels in the lower portion of the plant.

Ironically, nitrates do not cause nitrate poisoning in beef cows.

That’s because the real culprit is an intermediate compound, nitrite. When cow herds consume forages with natural low levels of nitrates, the ruminal microbes break down this nitrate into ammonia, which is safely incorporated back into bacterial protein. In contrast, excessive forage nitrates overwhelm the microorganism’s capacity to process the nitrates into ammonia, and a nitrite pool is formed.

These nitrites are absorbed across the rumen wall into the bloodstream, where they bind with the oxygen-carrying compound hemoglobin, present in cow’s red blood cells. Unlike hemoglobin, methemoglobin cannot carry oxygen in the blood. As a result, the oxygen-carrying-capacity of the cow’s blood quickly diminishes to the point where the tissues of a poisoned cow suffocate to death.

All nitrate-suspected forage (such as a hailed-out barley crop or drought-stricken corn field) should be tested before feeding to cattle as the best assurance for safety. Producers should collect samples in the field and then collect another set of samples once the crop is harvested. Send in all samples into a reputable laboratory and request a common nitrate test, which should cost no more than $20 per forage sample. It is also recommended that water samples be collected and tested for nitrates too.

A routine laboratory printout shows forages and other feeds analyzed for nitrate content are commonly reported as nitrate (NO₃) or nitrate nitrogen (NO₃N).

Research has proved that mature cattle and replacement heifers can safely consume a total diet containing nitrates that are below 0.5 per cent NO₃, or, expressed another way, below 0.12 per cent NO₃N on a dry matter basis.

Blending down

I believe that if overwinter forages are sampled and the results show that they contain toxic nitrate levels for the cow herd, it is a good idea to grind the contaminated forage such as hay and dilute it with other clean hays, straw and silage.

This process often brings the level of nitrates to acceptable safe limits, particularly in a TMR mixer. Note that the alternative of feeding whole high-nitrate bales alternated with low-nitrate bales is not recommended.

Last winter, I dealt with a 250-beef cow-calf operation that tested an overwinter supply of hailed alfalfa-grass hay bales that contained 0.70 per cent NO₃ (on a dry matter intake (DMI) basis). In order to safely feed it, we diluted it down to under 0.5 per cent NO₃ (on a DMI basis) by putting a reformulated TMR diet together.

TABLE: A ration formulated to reduce the impact of high-nitrate forages in a beef cow diet. Source: Peter Vitti

Actual calculated NO₃ level of this diet was 0.46 per cent (DMI basis). The producer fed this overwintering diet, when his cow herd was brought home in late October until the start of the calving season in February. Then a couple of pounds of barley were fed to each fresh cow. No problems associated with the nitrate-contaminated hay appeared.

This story is a good testimonial that feeding high-nitrate forages to overwintering beef cows can be done. This means suspect forages should be tested for nitrate content. If its nitrate content comes back and it cannot be safely fed, dilute it to a safe feeding level with low-nitrate forages in a well-balanced overwintering beef cow diet.

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Nitrogen is one of the most abundant and important of all elements but misunderstood by the general public. Nitrogen exists in three oxide and gaseous forms: nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and nitric oxide (NO). These three gaseous forms often confused me, despite my chemistry background, so do not blame crop production specialists for getting them cross-wired.

Nitrogen dioxide

NO₂ is a reddish-brown gas that is poisonous and highly reactive. It’s a contributor to the haze often seen in cities with high traffic densities. In the presence of water, it quickly forms nitrous or nitric acid, which in contact with the soil rapidly becomes calcium or magnesium nitrate or other stable nitrate compounds. In nature it’s the usual gas that’s formed from lightning strikes, up to a few pounds per acre, when it’s washed into the soil by the accompanying rain or hail.

Nitrous oxide

N₂O, well known to us as laughing gas, is a gas used in dentistry or medical surgery but its use is becoming restricted since it has become a drug now frequently used recreationally.

Its agricultural story is much more sinister, as the dreaded gas produced by cropland is some 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a contributor to global warming. It’s a very stable gas that takes more than 100 years to break down in the atmosphere. Up to seven per cent of global warming is attributed to this gas, whose significant source of origin is agricultural cropland.

Nitric oxide

Here I could say that NO means “yes.” This is a very important gas in human, animal and plant health. Nitric oxide is the molecule (gas) that regulates many systems in both animals and plants. It not only plays a number of key roles in your body but also in all plant growth. NO regulates such processes as seed germination, root development, grain and fruit production. Both plants and animals are able to synthesize NO from nitrogen compounds. Next time you go to the drugstore you will see very many nutrient supplements that claim to boost the NO level in your body to improve your health. You may expect lots of exciting research in future on the role and use of NO in plants and crop production systems and hence animal health.

It’s confusing, but you must distinguish between N₂ (nitrogen), NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide), N₂O (nitrous oxide) and NO (nitric oxide) — in summary, a group of gases that can so easily be confusing even to specialists.

Nitrogen salts, such as nitrates and nitrites, are the foundations of the whole world’s biological system. Nitrogen is the key element in all foods and food production and as salts they can be totally essential or destructive, both as nitrites and nitrites.

All nitrogen compounds, whether organic or chemical, are basically very unstable. To fix nitrogen either in the form of nitrate, nitrite or ammonia takes a great deal of energy. For this reason, fixed nitrogen is the key element of almost all explosions. Semtex, TNT, dynamite, picric acid and countless other explosives in bombs, guns and rockets are nitrogen-based. The triple bond that holds N2 together is very strong, but the bond between nitrogen and other atoms is very weak and highly unstable, as in explosives.

Nitrates in food and crops

Nitrates are present in very many of the foods that we eat, such as bacon and cured meats where they function as preservatives. Such meats are usually salted with common salt and saltpeter, which is either sodium or potassium nitrate. I remember, as a youth, when a pig was killed on the farm, we had to rapidly cover the hams and sides with common salt and then rub in saltpeter to initiate the curing process. (Remember here that clostridium botulinum bacteria (botulin) produce a toxin that is millions of times more toxic than snake venom.)

In the actual process of curing the meats, the salt draws out the water and surface bacteria on the meat can convert the sodium or potassium nitrates to nitrites. It is these nitrites that are then converted to nitrosamines which are implicated as cancer-causing. Recent research, though, has shown that adding vitamin C (ascorbate) to the meat curing process promotes the conversion of nitrite to nitric oxide. As a consequence, nitrite levels in food have been significantly reduced to less than 100 parts per million (p.p.m.), resulting in much-reduced nitrosamines — the problem compound within the food.

Processed meats are not our only processed source of nitrates in food. Vegetables, such as beets, celery and broccoli, for example, may contain significant nitrate levels. It so happens that toxic nitrosamines can be formed in the human body if we ingest both nitrates and amines in our food, even if you are a vegetarian.

Nitrates, nitrites and livestock problems

Nitrates are present in all horticultural and field crop plants. Normally nitrates are taken up by plants and are primarily converted to plant protein. However, under unusual growing conditions such as a sudden severe frost on a rapidly growing forage crop or crops intended for hay or silage or a severe drought on well fertilized pasture, feeding problems can occur.

Cattle are much more likely than horses to experience nitrate or nitrite poisoning. When consumed by cattle, the nitrate levels, if high enough, cannot all be converted to protein and the excess nitrates or nitrites may enter the bloodstream, where they combine with the blood hemoglobin to produce methemoglobin, a form that cannot transport oxygen. Death can occur from asphyxiation. If you suspect nitrate poisoning, consult a veterinarian immediately for help.

If you suspect high nitrates in hay or forage, the nitrate levels will not dissipate over time but you may ration the amount fed to your cattle. Sheep and goats are also sensitive to high nitrate levels, but seem to be more tolerant than cattle. Horses are much more tolerant than ruminants such as cows, sheep and goats — but there are recorded cases of significant nitrate poisoning in horses. In the spring of 2001 in Kentucky, thousands of mares aborted their foals — and the cause was finally resolved to be the well fertilized pasture grasses in that state. The grass pastures were hit by unusually cold and even freezing weather that stopped grass growth but did not stop the accumulation of nitrates. The pasture grasses became unusually high in nitrates and nitrites that were taken up by the mares. The nitrate damages the hemoglobin in the red blood cells, preventing oxygen circulation, resulting in fetal death.

If harvested hay or forage is suspected to be high in nitrates, have them tested by any of several Prairie laboratories. It is generally accepted that the total dietary nitrate in dry matter should be no more than 5,000 p.p.m. or 0.5 per cent by weight. Over this level, high-nitrate hay or forage should be diluted by 50 per cent with other feed. Levels of 10,000 p.p.m. (one per cent) can cause death in cattle and should not be fed.

Cattle should not be allowed to graze on drought-stricken cropland high in nitrogen, nor on well fertilized pasture or late-seeded well fertilized crops heavily damaged by frost. Both instances can result in nitrite accumulation.

In this discussion on N and its oxides and chemical compounds I hope I have enlightened rather than confused you. Nitrogen, on the other hand, in its biological forms, is so incredibly diverse and complex that it would take textbooks to explain.

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Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon and sausages, extend the shelf life of processed meats and give boiled ham its pink colour.

But a 2015 World Health Organization report classified processed meat as carcinogenic because curing — by adding nitrates or nitrites or by smoking — can lead to the formation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

Proposed by an MP of the Modem party — which is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling coalition — the new bill stopped short of an outright ban from 2023, but has set a timetable for reducing nitrites use.

National health agency Anses will publish a report about the health risks of nitrite by the end of June, after which the government will have 12 months to outline a trajectory for reducing or phasing out the preservative.

Implementation of the new law would fall to a new government following presidential elections in April.

“Even if this law delays a decision on the issue, it commits government and parliament to take decisions in coming months,” said French food quality app Yuka, the French anti-cancer league and the Foodwatch NGO in a joint statement.

Fabien Castanier, director of cured meat industry federation FICT, said his group welcomed the fact that any decision would be based on a scientific report.

He said nitrites are deemed to be safe additives under current French and European legislation and that the French “charcuterie” industry already used less nitrite — about 110 miligrams per kilogram — than the 150 mg/kg allowed by EU rules.

Currently, 90 per cent of all cured meats include nitrites but some of the biggest firms such as Nesltle-owned Herta or Fleury Michon are already experimenting with nitrite-free products, Castanier said.

However, he said the nearly 300 small- to medium-size companies in the sector would struggle to manufacture their products without the use of nitrites, as lack of the preservative would reduce shelf life and increase the risk of bacterial infection.

— Reporting for Reuters by Geert De Clercq in Paris.

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