Re: Re: Cotton seeds in beet pulp

Well, it's not ideal, but really not a big deal unless you were feeding tremendous amounts (which I assume you're not). Unprocessed cottonseed, or to a lesser extent cottonseed meal, contains a substance called gossypol which tends to bind to amino acids, chelate iron, etc. It would be a bigger problem in a young animal, but usually not a major concern in adults in the amounts your horse would be eating. The safe upper limit for a healthy adult horse is about 10% or so in the diet---around three pounds or so.

Don't get me wrong, gossypol IS a concern and I would never recommend cottonseed as part of the usual diet, although diets *can* be formulated to use cottonseed meal as the protein source. If the cottonseed component of your beet pulp is less than 20%, and your not feeding more than ten pounds of beet pulp a day, then I wouldn't lose sleep over it. But maybe your feed store manager could find a supplier that sweeps out his bins a little better. You might also ask if the same mill also manufactures feeds for cattle, especially ones that contain ionophores, Rumensin, Monensin, etc. If something like *that* got into the food you fed your horse, that CAN cause major, major, life-threatening problems, and it wouldn't be the first time horses died because they were accidentally fed a cattle feed. There was a big barn back East that lost a couple dozen top show horses because of such an accident---so wouldn't be a bad idea to ask your feed store to check into it, and if the same mill also makes cattle feeds with ionophores...well, I'd probably ask for him to order you a different brans, or skip feeding beet pulp from that source altogether.

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