To some extent, John Mitchell has mixed feelings about the
experimental forage field-testing kit he’s helping evaluate.

“It monopolized my summer last year,” said the Banks County
Extension Coordinator. “It’ll work you to death.”

Mostly, though, Mitchell enthusiastically supports the testing
kit that seems destined to become standard equipment in the
University of Georgia’s county Extension Service offices.

‘Saved People’s Backsides’

“It’s the best tool I’ve used to do extension work,” Mitchell
said. “It saved some people’s backsides in my county.”

The kit enables agents to go to a farm, test a forage sample and
get a reasonably accurate assessment of its nitrate content.

Nitrates in forages, at high levels, can cause sickness and poor
growth in cattle. At very high levels, it can kill them.

Mitchell is one of 30 county agents involved in evaluating the
kit created by Paul Vendrell, who heads the Feed and
Environmental Water section of the Agricultural and Environmental
Services Labs, in the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.

Kit Not Complicated

The kit isn’t complicated to use. The results are keyed to a
color chart, with lighter tones giving the go-ahead to feed the
forage to cattle. Intermediate shades signal caution, and the
darkest hues call a halt to any feeding plans.

Mitchell tested one millet sample that went immediately to the
darkest color. He alerted the farmer, who had planned to put 28
purebred cattle into the deadly field. The lab analysis confirmed
an extremely high nitrate level would have killed the cattle.

The agents test forage samples with the kit and send samples for
comparison to Vendrell’s lab. The first year’s testing showed
Vendrell needed to recalibrate the color chart. Now he’s
setting up a second round of evaluations.

“We’re not going to release it until we’re sure the decisions
being made with it are sound,” he said.

Getting Proper Samples

Vendrell and a number of agents say the first year also showed
the need for some education on getting proper samples. A number
of problems, they said, were more likely related to the sample
than to the kit.

Floyd County Extension agricultural agent Walt Parks said using
the new fast-testing kit is “real county agent work.” It makes
farmers more aware of potential dangers in their hay and other
forages. “They often don’t see the problem with high nitrate
levels,” he said, “until they see a dead cow.”

Most agents say the kit’s benefits far outweigh its problems,
offering a rare “foot in the door” with many farmers. “I’ve been
able to talk to people who wouldn’t give me the time of day
before,” Mitchell said.