Sling

For sorghum food plots, how much risk is therethat prussic acid will cause deer mortalilty? Has any research been done on this and are there any precautions that shoudbe taken?

kevin1

Prussic acid is highly toxic, why would you treat your sorghum with it?

falcon

Here is a link that explains it pretty well. Not sure about the threat to deer. However it appears that prussic acid is an issue with cattle in sileage and young re-growth plants. i do know thatdeer love the mature seed heads.


http://www.uwex.edu/ces/crops/uwforage/SorghumsFOF.htm

timbercruiser

It seems to me that there are better plots than sorghum for deer anyway. It would rate way down the list as far as a preferred plot to me.

falcon

"It would rate way down the list as far as a preferred plot to me."

If you had seen what the deer did to the milo in my plots you might change your mind. It is a good spring plant with clay peas. The peas climb the milo stocks. After the deer eat the heads off the milo or the hogs come in and knock it down; the peas really take off and grow until frost.

farm hunter

I read the link and learned a bit about something I did not know. I think the same can be said for many plots though. Clover can cause BLOAT - Corn can be toxic when ingested in high levels in the winter. Many plots are subect to increasing nitrites in drought, etc.

I cannot answer about Cyandie poisoning in Sorghum - I'd guess I suggest that if the deer are eating it so much, then maybe the would really really eat clover of Rye. If I was worried about it - I'd switch to a different plot.

Sling

We actually have a sorghum plot in right now that I am concerned about.

The area we are planting has pretty sandy soil. We have a series of alfalfaplots and sorghum/sudangrass hybrid plots (the sorghum also serves as a screen from a public road).I would rather plant clover, butalfalfa seems to grow better there. Corn does not do well, but sorghum does.

Anyway, if you have been watching the news, you know we had a drought going on in parts of the midwest that was recently endedwth flooding. Our sorghum plot looked horible afew of weeks ago. We thought it was going to be a loss, because we had not seen sorghum plants go dormant before. When the rains came, the plants shot up and the plots are making a come back. We will probably need a late frost to geta lot of grain, but we still have a chance.

I had not given mucn thought to prussic acid previously, but since the plants were really stressed this year, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this or information.

Sling

Thanks to everyone that responded. I had a couple of interesting documents passed on to me that I will pass on to you. This is probably not an issue.

Page 33 on the bottom right side:

Cyanide Hazards to Fish, Wildlife, and Invertebrates: A Synoptic Review

http://www.cyantists.com/Publications/Toxicology/USFWS%20Cyanide%20Hazards.pdf


Pages 5 - 11
Anti-Quality Factors in Rangeland and Pastureland Forages

http://www.caf.wvu.edu/~forage/quality_factors/anti-quality_bulletin.pdf

North Texan

I don't know that I've ever seen a dead deer in the sorghum-sudan fields here. If they were eating it when it was producing prussic acid, they would most likely not make it out of the fields. When cattle get into it, they drop in the field.

Most years I don't lose any cattle on it, but it has happened. As long as it is dry and has been dry, I've never had any problems. And as long as it is wet and has been wet, I've never had any problems. It doesn't seem to stress it enough to cause problems. Two scenarios cause me the most problems. The first is when it goes from wet to dry to wet to dry, without a significant period of time passing between each cycle. The next is when it is dry and has been dry, and we get one of those little pop-up showers that rains about a tenth of an inch. The day goes from hot to hot and humid, and the cattle have to be removed immediately or they will start dropping like flies.

Johnsongrass does the same thing.