MSU Extension offers Agricultural services to assist farmers and ranchers

Published: 2019
By Sharla Sackman

MSU Extension in Prairie County offers services to assist producers including forage testing, insect and weed identification, plant disease diagnostics, crop variety information, ration balancing, feed analysis, and range monitoring. Nitrate quick tests are performed in the Prairie County Extension Office to test forage for the presence of the toxin nitrate. As a result of educating producers about the importance of testing their small grain forages for nitrate, producers brought 19 feed samples to the Extension Office to be tested. During the summer of 2019, 63% of the samples tested positive for nitrate. 25% of those samples tested high enough that producers would have to delay cutting or feed cautiously by diluting the ration.