Beet Pulp FAQ
I like to feed beet pulp, and recently some friends have been asking me about it. Here is a recently published article I would like to share. – Linda P Beet Pulp FAQ’s By Alexandra Beckstett, The Horse Managing Editor You hear about owners feeding it to their underweight or aging horses. You see fellow boarders at the barn scooping it into buckets for soaking. But what is this stuff, and does your horse need it? Beet pulp, a byproduct of the sugar beet industry, has long been a part of equine feed regimens, but that doesn’t mean owners don’t have questions about it. So we’ve compiled your most common inquiries and called on Kelly Vineyard, MS, PhD, research equine nutritionist at Purina Animal Nutrition, and Kristen M. Janicki, MS, PAS, an equine nutritionist based in Versailles, Ky., to provide some answers. 1. What does beet pulp do for a horse? Beet pulp is a low-cost, highly digestible form of fiber (greater than or equal to that of most hays) that offers many nutritional benefits for horses. The microbes in the horse’s hindgut can easily ferment and use it for energy production, Vineyard says. “(Beet pulp’s) energy value is higher than that of alfalfa pellets and is close to rivaling oats’ value,” Janicki says. “Therefore, it is a great source of fiber for hindgut health and calories for added body condition or fuel for performance.” Vineyard says the fiber in beet pulp also absorbs and holds water well, making soaked beet pulp an efficient way to […]