Clare Tone

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 […]

Information sourced from an article published by Steve Fransen and Ned Zaugg, Washington State University The recent flooding in Boulder County requires close monitoring of stored hay for signs of spontaneous combustion. Dry hay (stored at 15 percent moisture or less) is safe for long-term storage. However, if the hay has become wet the quality has been permanently changed and there is an increased potential of a fire hazard from spontaneous combustion. As microbial  organisms grow in wet hay they produce heat while drying out the surrounding surfaces of the hay for energy. More drying surfaces produces more microbial growth and different types of microbes live and die as the internal bale temperature climbs. When the bale temperature reaches about 150 Fº the hay is on a one-way street and going the wrong direction! The larger the haystack and the more densely packed the hay is the longer it may take to show signs of internal bale burning. Internal bale temperature may take several weeks before reaching 150 Fº, but from this point on more heat resistant bacteria start a process of chemical change that rapidly increases temperatures to the point of spontaneous combustion.Chemical reactions and microbial growth in hay occur because of the change in availability of moisture, oxygen, and pressure to create heat to the point of ignition and fire. Early warning signs are: Steam rising from bale surfaces and condensing on the roof and eves of the barn. Often molds will start to grow on all these surfaces too. An acrid, hot, tobacco