08/10/2024
It’s Saturday 🐴📚
This week we are taking about BEET PULP 👀 and why we use it for horses! 🐎
Beet pulp is a by-product of sugar beets that is produced after the sugar is removed from the beet. Being that the sugar is previously extracted from the beet, this leaves us with a low-sugar, high-fiber feed product that is ideal for many horse diets.
Not only is beet pulp high in fiber, but it is also higher in calories than a typical hay/dried forage product. Additionally, it is high in calcium and low in phosphorus, which allows an ideal balance when mixed with cereal grains.
Due to the fiber content of beet pulp, it can also be considered a prebiotic. This means that beet pulp can feed the living microbes in the horse’s hind gut.
However, before you go and start feeding straight beet pulp to your horse, there are a few other things to consider:
- Beet pulp has a relatively low protein content
- Beet pulp does not supply as many calories as other common feed ingredients
- Beet pulp lacks vitamins and is not a balanced source of minerals
One other common debate about beet pulp is to soak or not-to-soak beet pulp shreds or pellets. Generally, it is recommended to soak beet pulp when feeding over 1lb at a time and always soak feed if your horse has a history of choke. One benefit to soaking beet pulp, is that the high water holding capacity of this ingredient can aid in hydrating the horse.
Excel Equine uses beet pulp in a wide variety of our feeds to provide a high quality source of fiber in a completely fortified feed form, so you can rest assured your horses are getting all the nutrients they need to perform their best! 👏
