Sugar Beet questions...

[MegaBeast]

Have been looking on Trident's website at the nutritional breakdown of Supabeet - I always thought that one of the big pluses of SB was that it was high in fibre, however it is only 12% fibre? Seems quite low, what's the rest of it, water?

Also, is it classified as a concentrate and there should be fed at a max of 2kg at any time?

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Never heard of Supabeet. Standard sugar beet pellets, that you have to soak for 12 hrs+ are molassed so have a higher calorie count than some owners may want. But Speedibeet and Kwikbeet are unmolassed so are mostly fibre - almost all the goodness has already been removed by the industrial processes that turn sugar beet into human quality sugar. What remains after this is really just a waste product but alert feed companies soon caught on to this and the rest is history! Have a look at Speedibeet and Kwikbeet websites and you'll find calorific values to compare with Supabeet. The name sounds to me like ordinary beet shreds that have been jazzed up somehow (hence the "Supa" part). If you went for one of the other brands you should find what you're looking for.

 

[TGM]

Supabeet is the tradename of the bog standard molassed sugar beet pellets you are likely to find in your local feed merchants. Contains 20% sugar and 10% protein in addition to the fibre content.

Speedibeet, for comparison, is an unmolassed beet and contains 5% sugar, 16% fibre and 10% protein.

 

[teddyt]

You pay more for the processed, quick soak unmollassed sugar beets. Trident have a long soak unmollassed beet called equibeet, which is 8.2% protein, 16.5% fibre and a maximum sugar level of 5%. Badminton also do a long soak unmollassed sugar beet called eurobeet, but i dont know the analysis.

I personally dont think horses should be fed mollassed sugar beet, due to the high sugar content.

Fibre levels can be measured by 2 different ways, which will affect the % so direct comparison isnt always accurate. In regards to how much to feed, you need to weigh the dry sugar beet before soaking. Because you soak one part beet to 5 parts water, 2kg of dry beet would be a huge volume. The recommendation for feeding sugar beet is usually 100g (dry) for every 100kg of BW (per day) but obviously varies on the individual horse.

You can feed a greater quantity of a fibre feed than 2kg, as it is chewed and digested slowly. But you shouldnt feed more than 2kg of say pony nuts or mix or any other cereal containing feed because of the risk of starch reaching the hindgut partially or undigested. ideally though you should always try to mimic the natural digestive process, which is little and often- avoiding big feeds

 

[MegaBeast]

Thanks all, unfortunately my mare turns her nose up at unmolassed SB so don't have the option there! Kind of think that there must be thousands of horses fed on it without problems and indeed have been for many years so can't be that bad. Wouldn't be keen to give it to underworked horses or ponies full stop though.

Yeah, supabeet is the brand name for Trident's bog standard molassed SB box_of_frogs.

Wasn't thinking of giving 2kg of SB but to be giving 1 scoop chaff (500g) 1 scoop A&P P&P (1.5kg) and 1 scoop soaked SB? Thoughts? For each meal, 3xdaily