Old fashioned sugar beet

Mare Stare

Mare Stare

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 April 2011
Messages
1,037
Visit site
On a thread on here recently it was mentioned that they don't soak their sugar beet in America. I did a google and found it to be true. I found a page that said if you felt happier soaking sugar beet you can just soak it for an hour. :eek:

This was something I had never heard before. But it did make me think.

The original molassed sugar beet has a label on it saying it should be soaked with 5 times the amount of water. I've never soaked my sugar beet 1:5 as I've found it far too wet. I typically soaked it 1:3 , maybe 1:2.5. I've also found that sugar beet doesn't tend to swell anymore after 1 or 2 hours.

So is soaking for 24 hours over cautious? It's something that's been drilled into us Brits since forever.

Just wondering what peoples views are. Personally I'm feeding mine speedibeet now because my horses are all good doers and don't need the extra calories of molasses.
 
I dont use it anymore, but I did used to soak it for the time it said on the bag. I dont mind being cautious or over cautious, I dont care what other people choose to do but I prefer not to take unnecessary risks with mine. Id be the unlucky one ;)

The stuff the Americans feed dry? Is it the nuts or the shreds? Id feel even less happy about feeding a compressed nut than a shred.
 
Snow Angel said:
I dont use it anymore, but I did used to soak it for the time it said on the bag. I dont mind being cautious or over cautious, I dont care what other people choose to do but I prefer not to take unnecessary risks with mine. Id be the unlucky one ;)

The stuff the Americans feed dry? Is it the nuts or the shreds? Id feel even less happy about feeding a compressed nut than a shred.
Click to expand...

Not sure if its shreds or pellets. I was a bit :eek: at the time!

CM2581 said:
I don't know about the soaking aspect but speedibeet has a far higher energy content than normal mollassed beet pellets!
Click to expand...

Really? Its the only unmolassed stuff my local feed shop sell (they cater more for cows and sheep than horses). Should I order in something else instead?
 
If you soak and rinse shreds that would probably be your best bet as that will remove most of the molasses but as its not cooked there is less energy per weight. Or u could just feed less speedibeet!
 
When I went on holiday my mum looked after Rosie, she accidently fed sugarbeet (unsoaked) for a week in her feed!!!!!! Even though I told her not to touch that bin, when I came home and found out I was horrified, I cried and cried and sat with her cause I thought she was going to drop down dead, I rang up my vet friend and she said that she would have shown signs of colic by now. She was fine :) stomach of steel

Moral of the story never let mum look after your horse, however much training you give her!!!
 
xmillyx said:
When I went on holiday my mum looked after Rosie, she accidently fed sugarbeet (unsoaked) for a week in her feed!!!!!! Even though I told her not to touch that bin, when I came home and found out I was horrified, I cried and cried and sat with her cause I thought she was going to drop down dead, I rang up my vet friend and she said that she would have shown signs of colic by now. She was fine :) stomach of steel

Moral of the story never let mum look after your horse, however much training you give her!!!
Click to expand...

LMAO!!!! My dad was asked to bring my horse in when i was at YHL 'He has a light blue rug on' .......... He brought the wrong horse in, which ate all Zu's feed, calmer, muscle supps the lot and continued to much his haylage, needless to say Zu wasnt very happy when we arrived back at the yard to find no feed in his stable and a rather odd looking horse!!
 
I think they use sugar beet shreds rather than nuts in the US so you probably would get away with feeding them unsoaked - I use hi fibre nuts for my mare, soaked, as she is having trouble with her elderly teeth, and I have been gobsmacked by the amount they swell up to. But plenty of folk use them unsoaked without any problems.
 
The pellets soak up a lot more water than do the shreds. I soak for several hours,its just easier to soak the beet once a day and have it to hand rather than remembering to leave it for an hour or two.
 
I've always used shreds and I'm fairly sure they used to say to soak for 12 hours on the bag, but now it says 24. Coolstance used to say you could feed copra dry, they don't recommend that anymore. Think that stuff swells more than sugar beet! :o
 
Going back to late 60's the sugarbeet then didn't come in pelleted form as it does now - it was big shreds - bigger than it is now. It did need a lot of water and time. We always soaked overnight - a bag a day soaked in a bath.

The current cubes are definately far denser than they used to be and need at least 12 hours to soak - I soak mine in a 1:2 ratio as I don't need all the liquid to damp the feed.

The shreds are far far smaller than before and take less time to soak and these I think are the type USA use and feed unsoaked. You definately cannot feed the cubes un soaked.
 
scrunchie said:
On a thread on here recently it was mentioned that they don't soak their sugar beet in America. I did a google and found it to be true. I found a page that said if you felt happier soaking sugar beet you can just soak it for an hour. :eek:

This was something I had never heard before. But it did make me think.

The original molassed sugar beet has a label on it saying it should be soaked with 5 times the amount of water. I've never soaked my sugar beet 1:5 as I've found it far too wet. I typically soaked it 1:3 , maybe 1:2.5. I've also found that sugar beet doesn't tend to swell anymore after 1 or 2 hours.

So is soaking for 24 hours over cautious? It's something that's been drilled into us Brits since forever.

Just wondering what peoples views are. Personally I'm feeding mine speedibeet now because my horses are all good doers and don't need the extra calories of molasses.
Click to expand...

I soak fo 24 hrs, but would be ok with soaking for less if needed, it is just easier for me to make up a 3 day batch for my 2 and then swish the bucket out and re-make for the next 3 days. I do this at night and since they don't generally get breakfast unless I am riding Ebony (in which case they only have 1/4 scoop of chaff) I never need the beet until the following night anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top