Re: Beet Pulp (Dumb Question)

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

> Janet Baca wrote:
> 
> With all the talk of beet pulp all the time am wonder where in the
> heck do you get this stuff?

I got mine from the local feed store. Think I pay around
$8 a 50 lb bag?

When I went in the other day to get another bag (after
Mouse ate most of the previous one in one go, dry), the
guy said that they'd had 10 bags and it sat there forever,
until suddenly everyone wanted the stuff. The bag I bought 
was their last one. I made him promise to buy more.

Probably, if you asked your feed store, they'd find some
for you (or maybe they have a few bags tucked away in
the back somewhere?).

I think, round here (in the dry, dusty Central Valley) it's
mostly fed to cattle as an extra when they really can't
live on "that brown sh*t" (aka, grass) any more.

> What does it look like, pellets?

The stuff I get is the shredded type (soaks up water
quicker?). It looks kind of like crunchy, dark brown, 
small wood shavings (extremely appetising to small,
fat mares, apparently).

Cindy Budler wrote:
> 
> It's really frustrating hearing about everybody in the UK 
> and USA going on about beetpulp. I would love to be able 
> to use it - especially as we have terrible problems at this 
> time of the year with forage... Too import would probably 
> be a problem because of cost and spoilage.

Cost, maybe, Cindy, but I'm not sure about "spoilage". This 
stuff is *dry*. I can't imagine it going off. Maybe it would
"fade nutritionally" (technical term) with age, but going off? 
Susan E-G?

Annette Gordon wrote:
> 
> I've been told not to soak in hot
> water because it accelerates the fermentation process that will occur
> ultimately with any feed that is left wet for long enough. I suppose 
> if you use it quickly enough it may not matter.

"Soaking" it the way I use it (add water - swill around - give to 
horse) probably avoids this problem? Same with the idea of it 
"going off". Around here, it wouldn't have *time* to go off.

> Maybe you have different sugar beet out there but I would be very 
> scared to give my horses unsoaked sugar beet.

Well, like I mentioned, apart from getting even fatter,
Mouse was none the worse for wear from eating 30 lbs of
the stuff, dry, straight from the bag (hot wire has been 
added to that portion of fence, locking feed bins have 
been installed, and moved out of reach from greedy guts.
It was a good lesson learnt with an inert substance instead 
of volatile grain. Boy, were we lucky).

-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Repotted english person in Sacramento, CA 
http://www.calweb.com/~elsie

with Mouse and Provo
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