Agriculture Program Highlights

Published: 2019
By Josh Bilbao

A focus of the Gallatin county Ag program in 2019 was nitrate testing and education. Agriculture agent Josh Bilbao presented about the importance of testing nitrate levels in forage crops during an annual joint county event called Crop School. The main takeaway from the presentation was to test crops pre-harvest so producers could have time to reduce nitrate levels if they came in high at the time of testing. The MSU-Gallatin County Extension office tested 73 forage samples in 2019. That is compared to 45 tests in 2018. In 2018 13 of the 45 samples tested in the office were tested pre-harvest. Tests in 2019 were performed in 48 pre-harvest samples. Not only did the number of samples tested drastically increase from 2018 to 2019 (81% increase) the but the number of samples tested pre-harvest vs. post-harvest from 2018 to 2019 increased over 3.5 fold. The information gained by Gallatin county producers during the crop school presentation is the biggest driver for an increase in nitrate testing. Fourteen producers who tested for nitrates pre-harvest were able to reduce the total amount of nitrates in their forage crop by delaying harvest. One producer by the name of Jack greatly benefited from the MSU-Gallatin County Extension nitrate testing program. Jack brought in a multitude of samples early in the harvest season to test their nitrate levels. Three fields were showing nitrate levels that would lead to strict feeding restrictions had they been harvested the day they were tested. By working with Jack to delay the date of harvest and continual testing of his forage, our office as able to help Jack bring all three of those samples to nitrate levels they would not require any feeding restrictions. Jack would say “You really saved my bacon and wallet this year”.