Specialist Offers Suggestions
For Use Of Drouthed-Out Acres

AMARILLO — Dry weather in many parts of Texas has left this year's corn crop withering in the fields. Even irrigated corn is stressed.

But Brent Bean, Extension agronomist at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station here, says this corn may still be useful for livestock.

"One of the problems with corn is we've had too many acres and had to cut back on the acres," says Bean. "We've had to abandon a few acres. We don't think there's a lot of that going on, but certainly some of it has."

The question is what to do with those abandoned acres.

Bean says that while using them for forage for cattle can be a good idea, there are potential drawbacks.

"A major concern we have about that abandoned corn acres is nitrate poisoning if you're going to feed that forage," Bean says. "One problem with corn is the fact that most corn right now is at the tassling stage and at that point a lot of nitrates are naturally in that corn stalk because that plant is getting ready to feed that ear."

Even if the corn is not heavily stressed, it very likely will be high in nitrate. Bean says county agents have a small kit that can be used to test forage for the presence of nitrates. The test, however, doesn't tell how high the level is, only that nitrate is present. A diagnostic lab should be able to tell whether the level of nitrates is potentially dangerous to livestock.

Generally, nitrate concentrations will be highest in the lower part of the plant.

"As you move up the plant, we would expect that nitrate level to decrease," Bean says. "So one thing you can do is harvest the plant higher up. You can leave about 18 inches and hope to get out of where the nitrate level is the highest."

Bean also says the abandoned corn may be grazed.

"One of the advantages of grazing is the cattle are going to be using the leaves first off the top part of the plant," he says. "The leaves have less nitrate in them than the stalk."

Baling it is probably the worst option, because once the corn is baled the nitrate isn't going away.

"It's going to stay there," he says. "That's not necessarily a good option. Plus, the stalk is going to have a lot of moisture, and you could have a lot of spoilage."

Green chopping is another option, he says.

"You just go in on a daily basis and cut what you need, chop it up and feed it at that time," Bean says. "You're also diluting the nitrates with green chop because you're using the leave and the whole plant."

Silage is probably a good option because if the corn is put up for silage, the nitrate level will gradually go down to about 50 percent of what it originally was.

"One drawback to all of this is that you'll probably get about a third of the yield that you would normally get," Bean says. "But at least you're getting some return."

In areas where it was too dry to even get a crop up, Bean says there are still several options open to producers. He suggests going back in with a forage crop for hay.

In the Panhandle, sorghum Sudan grass is an option, he says.

"If we can get a rain and get that planted, we can still have a hay crop," Bean says. "I think hay is going to be in short supply and certainly is going to be worth something."

But there can also be a nitrate problem with sorghum Sudan later on, and producers have to be concerned about prussic acid.

A better option would be to use pearl millet," Bean says. "There's lots of millet seed around. It's available. It's cheap. You can be grazing that in 30 or 40 days. I think that might provide a bridge for some of the ranchers who are running out of pasture and need some forage to give them a bridge over to wheat pasture."

As for wheat, Bean says the advantage to the crop is that it can be planted over a fairly wide range of time. He's telling the producers he works with to prepare their ground if they're not using no-tillage methods so if they do get a rain they'll be ready to plant.

The temptation in the Panhandle is to plant as soon as there is a rain, he says. Bean recommends waiting until after Aug. 20.

"If you plant much earlier than that, the wheat just doesn't do very well because of high soil temperatures," he says.