Testing toxic forage

Forage sorghum is a popular grazing crop for livestock but it does not come without risks. For some species, including Sorghum bicolour, the young plants and leaves of older plants contain the glycoside dhurrin which can break down to release hydrogen cyanide, causing mild to severe reactions in animals. Now scientists have developed a near-IR method for measuring HCN in forage sorghum and hay, which will allow farmers to monitor their crops and move their stock to safer pastures and to encourage crop breeders to develop new genotypes which are low in cyanide.