Some North Dakota State University Extension Service specialists are urging livestock producers in drought stricken states to be aware of nitrate poisoning.
Nitrate poisoning may occur if livestock eat drought-stressed crops and forages, which can accumulate nitrates.
“If producers are considering utilizing low-yielding crops as livestock forage, they should be tested for nitrates prior to feeding.” Plant stresses, such as drought, can increase the levels of nitrate in plants.
“Not all drought conditions cause high nitrate levels in plants,” says Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist Miranda Meehan.
“Some moisture must be present in the soil for the plant to absorb and accumulate nitrate.
In plants that survive drought conditions, nitrates are often high for several days following the first rain.” Grazing Drought-stressed Plants Carl Dahlen, Beef Cattle Specialist, has this advice for producers who are scouting or sampling for nitrates in cereal crop fields they are planning to have their livestock graze: “Severe drought-stressed areas such as hilltops with very sandy soils might have plants that look bad, but these plants may be so stressed that they are not accumulating much nitrate at all unless there is a recent rain event.
“Plants have to be in active growth stages to take up nitrogen from the soil,” he says.
Acute poisoning usually occurs from a half-hour to four hours after livestock consume toxic levels of nitrate.
Those symptoms include: Bluish/chocolate brown mucous membranes Rapid, difficult or noisy breathing Rapid pulse (150-plus beats per minute) Salivation, bloating, tremors, staggering Dark chocolate-colored blood Weakness, coma, death Pregnant females that survive nitrate poisoning may abort because of a lack of oxygen to the fetus.
“Overstocking increases the amount of high-nitrate plant parts (stems and stalks) that are consumed by livestock.” The nitrate content of small-grain forages also can be reduced by up to 50 percent by chopping and ensiling, Dahlen says.

Simple Trick May Help Plants Survive Drought.
(Newser) – As the climate warms, scientists are conducting experiments around the world to try to boost drought resistance in a wide range of crops.
But a study out of the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan is especially promising because the key ingredient helping a wide range of crops survive severe drought is cheap and readily available: vinegar.
Reporting in the journal Nature Plants, the researchers say that plants grown in drought conditions and treated with water, acetic acid (vinegar), or other organic acids all died—except for 70% of those treated with acetic acid.
The study came about because scientists are trying to understand why a mutation to an enzyme called HDA6 in Arabidopsis plants makes them so drought resistant, reports Phys.org.
In normal conditions, HDA6 represses the production of acetic acid.
During a drought, HDA6 is involved in a biological pathway that actually produces acetate, a salt that is a byproduct of acetic acid.
In the Arabidopsis plants that are drought resistant, that pathway is extra active, producing far more acetate, reports Popular Science.
Sure enough, in what Modern Farmer reports "could be a hugely important discovery," vinegar helped multiple crops in this study, including rice, wheat, and maize, survive drought-like conditions.
(More than 100 million trees recently died in California.)

Northern Plains Drought to Continue.
Grassland — check.
The driest April-through-June since 2006 in South Dakota — and the driest April-June period ever in some other portions of the Northern Plains — has taken its toll.
“The way it’s starting to look now, it’s not even going to make it for silage.” Buelow, along with South Dakota State Climatologist Laura Edwards, have some stark details about dryness that has become historic.
Edwards noted that, in South Dakota, June was the eighth-driest month on record.
And, South Dakota averages around an inch of rain per week in June, so it doesn’t take much to fall behind.” Edwards shares the concern about potential harm to corn with continued drought.
The weather forecast for the next two weeks is mainly hot and dry for the Northern Plains.
Crop losses, though, are a different matter.
Is there the potential for the Northern Plains drought to last into another year and become an event similar to multi-year droughts already experienced this decade in Texas and California?
“Some would argue that we might actually be in the second year of drought,” she said, referring to how drought was noted in portions of South Dakota a year ago.

Pyramid Lake Algal Bloom Now at ‘Warning’ Level From the Department of Water Resources: The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is urging boaters and recreational users to avoid direct contact with or use of waters containing blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) in Pyramid Lake in Los Angeles County. Water from the swim beach at Pyramid Lake’s Vaquero Day Use Area was tested using a field test kit on July 6 and showed a reading of 10 micrograms of microcystins per liter, a level that prompts the issuance of a “Warning” health advisory and the closure of the swim area. The Vaquero Day Use Area remains open for picnicking and other shoreline activities, but the swim beach is closed. A “Caution” advisory issued last week remains in place for the remainder of the lake, including Emigrant Landing Swim Beach. The Emigrant Landing Swim Beach is open for swimming. Field test strips provide faster results than laboratory testing but do not yield definitive results. Samples have been sent to a laboratory for additional analysis. Bloom conditions can change rapidly, and wind and waves may move or concentrate the bloom into different regions of the lake. “Warning” signs have been posted at Vaquero Swim Beach, and “Caution” signs remain posted at other locations around the lake. The algal bloom can appear as blue-green, white or brown foam, scum or mats that can float on the water’s surface and accumulate along the shoreline and boat ramp area. Blue-green algae can pose health risks, particularly to children and pets. Visitors to Pyramid Lake are urged to choose safe…

GLENDIVE, Mont. — It’s not unusual for it to feel like eastern Montana and western Montana are two different states, with the plains in the east and the mountains to the west. This year’s drought has settled along similar lines, with the eastern prairies brown and the western areas maintaining closer to normal soil moisture. Kelsey Jensco, state climatologist, says the Continental Divide splits the state into a maritime climate in western Montana, similar to the Pacific Northwest, and a semi-arid continental climate in the east. “In eastern Montana this spring, we saw warmer temperatures, a significant reduction in precipitation and persistent winds,” he says. “In Glasgow, the National Weather Service reported the driest April, May and June since 1918.” In those three months, only 1.24 inches of rain fell in Glasgow. In the U.S. Drought Monitor released June 6, the percentage of Montana in extreme drought nearly doubled, from 6.77 percent to 12.89 percent. Another 22.04 percent is in severe drought, 8.01 percent is in moderate drought and 4.78 percent is abnormally dry. North Dakota’s area in extreme drought increased slightly, from 25.06 percent to 29.29 percent. Another 17.7 percent is in severe…

Wheat prices jump on Montana drought news.
A recent jump in spring wheat payments have been a light at the end of a tunnel for grain farmers, except in northeast Montana, where it’s become a drought-driven train.
Half the state’s spring wheat crop was rated poor to very poor Wednesday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The five-year average for poor to very poor quality in early July is eight percent.
Roughly 45 percent of its spring wheat is grown in northeastern Montana counties anchored by the Hi-line community of Glasgow, which had six percent of its normal rainfall in June.
For much of the area, last month was the third driest June on record, according to the National Weather Service station in Glasgow.
Last Wednesday, NWS warned pilots that poor air density related to high temperatures would make it difficult for planes to climb and that more runway would be needed for taking off as a heat wave pushed temperatures into the high 90s and the 100-degree range.
In the Fort Benton area, Mike O’Hara said farmers who seeded spring wheat in March are looking at a good crop.
Montana has benefited from unexpected jumps in price in recent years as drought hit other wheat growing regions of the world.
Both Russia and Australia have suffered droughts in recent years that boosted prices to the benefit of Montana grain farmers.

Six livestock deaths caused by the algae are reported in North Dakota so far this year FARGO, ND — The drought conditions are escalating algae which can kill livestock in five minutes if ingested. For rancher Roddy Grefsrud, it’s been a forgiving season in Hawley, Minnesota. “We got an inch and a half of rain Wednesday night,” said Grefsrud “We hope the pasture will come back a little bit. But otherwise, it hasn’t been bad.” But the same can’t be said for several ranchers on the North Dakota side. Ag officials at NDSU told us more cyanobacteria than usual are getting into natural water sources for cattle in the state. It’s commonly referred to as blue/green algae….

A historical marker tells the story of how the Blue Mesa Reservoir was created when a dam was built on the upper Gunnison River more than 50 years ago. Although the spring snowpack and reservoir levels have been well above average this year, Colorado ag water leaders aren’t backing off from their efforts to educate the public about the need for more water storage. Photo by Candace Krebs By Candace Krebs / Contributing Writer A period of historic drought in the West might be over for now, but the war over water never is. A period of historic drought in the West might be over for now, but the war over water never is. From Colorado to California, a snowy late spring finally broke through what was left of the drought’s fierce grip. Soil is saturated again, reservoirs are full and water worries have temporarily receded as farms return to their full productive capability. Even so, wrestling over water during the recent shortages was a wake-up call for agricultural leaders who are now putting heightened importance on developing better outreach to the public while still pushing long-term resource planning. “Consumers enjoy what we produce but they don’t really understand what it takes to do it,” summarized Alicia Rockwell, the director of corporate communications for Blue Diamond, a large almond growing cooperative with more than 3,000 members who each farm on average 50 to 70 acres of trees. Agricultural groups in the two states are undertaking new forms of what Rockwell calls “ag reputation management” while looking ahead at how to address future water needs. “This is a very difficult place to do business,” she said. “That’s not just a concern for California, it should be a concern for the nation.” In Colorado, the Ag Water Alliance, a decade-long collaboration among representatives of the state’s agricultural groups, has put much of their emphasis in recent years on educating farmers and water-users on water rights issues and exploring new alternatives for sharing water between high priority uses. In recent weeks the group hosted two bus tours, geared specifically to the general public, which traveled through some of the most highly productive irrigated farmland in the…

Drought conditions have continued to spread across South Dakota over the past few weeks. The most recent drought monitor shows that more than 90 percent of state is experiencing abnormally dry conditions and drought. This has brought increased hardship for South Dakota producers. Many livestock producers are reducing their herd size or making plans to do so this fall. Crops are also suffering, particularly South Dakota’s wheat crop. The U.S. Drought Monitor provides a weekly snap shot of what conditions on the ground look like. There have been some frustrations over the past couple of weeks about the accuracy of the drought monitor. As with most of the technological tools producers use, the Drought Monitor is only as good as the data used to build it. As…

Advisory group downgrades Lake Hickory drought status.
HICKORY – The drought status of the Catawba-Wateree river basin, which includes Lake Hickory, has been downgraded considering the area’s rainfall the past few months.
The Catawba-Wateree Drought Management Advisory Group announced Wednesday in a press release the drought condition, or Low Inflow Protocol, of the basin was lowered from Stage One to Stage Zero.
The drought advisory group consists of a number of regional partners that track the drought status of the basin and make recommendations for “coordinated actions” among the group’s members.
The Stage One drought condition, which has been in place since November 2016, includes recommendations for voluntary reductions in water use.
“So with those two improving to this point, the health of the system overall is much better; so that is actually what moved us to that Stage Zero condition,” Greer said.
Stage Zero “is the first of five drought stages and alerts the CW-DMAG members to monitor conditions,” according to the release.
In the past few weeks, the water level of Lake Hickory has exceeded the 97-foot target.
Chad Burel, who has lived on Lake Hickory for the past 20 years and runs the river cruise Lake Hickory Adventures, said in a phone interview the water level he has seen recently has been fairly normal.
Based on his own experiences seeing "the highest of the high and the lowest of the low," the water level is around the normal level, Burel said.