Estimating hydrogen cyanide in forage sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) by near-infrared spectroscopy.

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a toxic chemical that can potentially cause mild to severe reactions in animals when grazing forage sorghum. Developing technologies to monitor the level of HCN in the growing crop would benefit graziers, so that they can move cattle into paddocks with acceptable levels of HCN. In this study, we developed near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) calibrations to estimate HCN in forage sorghum and hay.