Need advice on beet pulp.

[moodygirl]

I finally got my horses, 2 Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses, yearlings. They are gorgeous but no pictures yet, I am not digital. I still use 35mm. Someone suggested I supplement their grain with water soaked beet pulp, that it is good for them and makes the grain go farther. Anyone use beet pulp and with what results? I have read on line about it and horse.com said you could safely supplement 25%. Do you measure it dry and then soak it? They get a 3 qt scoop of 12% sweet feed each per day. Do I take 1/4 of this away (a little less than a quart) and add the soaked pulp to it? Any pointers will be appreciated.

[mart]

A three quart scoop is an awful lot of grain !! Especially for a yearling,, unless it is only once daily !! If it is just once a day you would be safer to split it in half and feed half in the morning and other half in the evening !! A horse can easily founder if the stomach is overloaded !! Some people swear by beet pulp but I have never used it !! Hay is much better in my opinion !! Horses are grazing animals and they walk and eat constantly !! The longer they take to eat the better in my opinion !! I would give a flake of hay instead unless they have plenty of pasture !! If they have pasture they really do not need either one unless they are very underweight !! If you feed beet pulp keep in mind that it has carbs/sugar in it and some of the grain would need to be reduced !! I would reduce it by half if it were me !!

[moodygirl]

Originally Posted by mart

A three quart scoop is an awful lot of grain !! Especially for a yearling,, unless it is only once daily !! If it is just once a day you would be safer to split it in half and feed half in the morning and other half in the evening !! A horse can easily founder if the stomach is overloaded !! Some people swear by beet pulp but I have never used it !! Hay is much better in my opinion !! Horses are grazing animals and they walk and eat constantly !! The longer they take to eat the better in my opinion !! I would give a flake of hay instead unless they have plenty of pasture !! If they have pasture they really do not need either one unless they are very underweight !! If you feed beet pulp keep in mind that it has carbs/sugar in it and some of the grain would need to be reduced !! I would reduce it by half if it were me !!

I should know better than to post anything before my medication! I am feeding them 2 qts grain per day each. They were fed once a day by the seller, but I switched it to 2 times per day for my own needs. (2 qts twice per day).Since there is no grass left in their pen by the stall, I give them 1-2 flakes hay to munch on while in there. I usually shut them up for 2-3 hrs in the afternoon, so we all can take a break. The rest of the time they graze in my front yard and surrounding area. I keep my eye on them so they don't decide to go graze on my neighbor's yard or hay field. I do live 1/3 mile off the road, which is gravel.

So do you think I should cut their grain to 1 1/2 QT each per day and just increase their hay as needed? I realize if I added beet pulp I decrease the grain & that's what I didn't know how to do. The article I read talked about it being a carbohydrate and blah, blah, blah. I was cornfused. Why can't they ever write feeding articles that are easy to understand? I always feel like I'm floundering around doing Algebra word problems.

Since I have good hay & know it's good for them, I think I'll stick with that.

[mart]

Yes, I would cut them down if they were mine and feed more hay !! Hay is better for the digestive system and they really need little grain !! One thing most people fail to remember is that they need to grow slowly !! Too much too fast and bones suffer !! 12 % protein is a good ration but without a place to run or walk most of the day it can still be a little much for young horses !! 1 1/2 qts would be better and just give more hay !! Actually you can feed a horse nothing but hay and he will be healthy and do fine but they cannot live and thrive on grain alone !!

[moodygirl]

Thanks Mart!

[mart]

One other thing,,, as they grow and mature, you can add more grain or if they start looking too thin, add a little more !! Most feeding is just common sense providing there are no other problems !! If your hay is a good quality they will get the same nutrients from it as they do from feed !! And they have much less chance of colic or founder as the hay keeps things moving through the gut !! Almost forgot,,, You might want to add a trace mineral supplement till they are at least 2 years !! Since you do not have much pasture just to make sure that they get all the minerals they need !! I use Gro-Colt by Farnam !! It is a pellet that is added to the feed and most horses eat it well !! It says to give daily but it is really only necessary to give every other day as long as you are feeding grain and hay !! It will not hurt to give daily but mine do great giving it every other day !!

[4jpainthorses]

I have used the beet pulp along with good hay and feed. We do not feed a sweet feed, we feed a 12% pellet. I would not give the beet pulp unless they are very underweight. The ones we used it one were underweight and as soon as they gained weight, we took them off of it. We used it one other time and that was when we had a drought and were low on hay.

[Cuttin74]

Beet pulp is the fibrous material left over after the sugar is extracted from sugar beets. It's an excellent source of digestible fiber, with a relatively low crude protein content (averaging 8 to 10%), comparable to good-quality grass hay. Its digestible energy is somewhere between that of hay and grain. In terms of other nutrients, it's not a stand-out--it has a relatively high calcium content and very little phosphorus, is low in B vitamins, and has virtually no beta-carotene (the precursor of vitamin A) or vitamin D. Its chief value is as a soft, easily digestible supplement to your horse's roughage (fiber) intake, and as such it's a useful addition to the diet of many types of horses.

Consider feeding beet pulp if your horse is a "hard keeper" (it's very good for encouraging weight gain), if he has dental problems that make chewing hay difficult, if the quality of your hay is poor, or if you have a geriatric horse who has trouble chewing or digesting other types of forage. It can be fed in addition to, or instead of, hay. Beet pulp's excellent digestibility also makes it a great choice for a convalescing horse--one recovering from illness or surgery, for example. It even can be fed warm in the winter months, just like a bran mash (and nutritionally, it's a better choice than bran). Most horses find it quite palatable, although occasionally you'll come across one who considers it an acquired taste.

In its original format, beet pulp is quite soft and prone to mold, so it must be dried for storage. You can buy dehydrated beet pulp in either a shredded or a pelleted format; either way, it's grayish-brown in color and has a slight but distinctive odor you'll come to recognize. Some companies add a touch of dried molasses to improve its palatability and energy content. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to soak beet pulp in water to feed it safely to horses--studies in which horses were fed dehydrated beet pulp, up to a level of 45% of their total diet, noted no ill effects whatsoever. Not only did the horses not "explode" (thus laying that myth to rest!), but they also suffered no signs of colic or choke, nor did the water content in their manure change. But most people prefer to soak beet pulp; it's more palatable that way, and less likely to cause choke.

To soak beet pulp, place the shreds or pellets in a bucket and add twice as much water as pellets. You can use cool or warm water; some people feel it soaks a little more quickly using warm, but be careful not to use water so hot that you cook the beet pulp, because that will destroy most of the nutrients it contains. Let the bucket sit for at least a couple of hours before feeding; when ready, the beet pulp should have soaked up all of the water, increased in volume to fill the bucket, and be light and fluffy in consistency. (If you use beet pulp pellets, it's easy to tell whether it has been soaked sufficiently, because there will be nothing left that resembles a pellet.) It's not necessary to soak it overnight. If you fextra water, don't worry; you can always drain it off before you feed, or you can feed the beet pulp on the "sloppy" side.

Although most horses will eat beet pulp on its own, its appeal will be improved if you stir it into your horse's regular grain ration. As with any new addition to the diet, start with only a small quantity and gradually increase the amount you're feeding over a period of a week or so. Because beet pulp is really a fiber supplement, not a grain, you can safely feed as much as you like; if weight gain is the objective, you may find yourself going through a gallon or more a day. Fortunately, beet pulp is a relatively inexpensive feed, so you don't have to be sparing with it.

It's best to make up beet pulp in small batches--just enough to feed in a single day. In the hot summer months, especially, soaked beet pulp left to sit tends to ferment, significantly changing its odor and flavor. If this happens, it's best to throw it out and make a fresh batch. Generally soaked beet pulp will keep for about 24 hours; in the winter, you may be able to stretch that to 48 hours or so.

I use beet pulp consistently in my own feeding program for all my horses.
I do not soak it, I mixed it with corn oil and pelleted feed and all the other stuff. All in all they may get a 2 cups of dry beet pulp in the mix per head perday.

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