Wet or dry weight - answer from Speedibeet

[horsegirl]

I have been asked to reply to your question on the Speedi-Beet online advisor.

Basically, yes. 1.75 kg of Speedi-Beet soaks to 10kg of product. But a horse needs at least twice the dry weight of feed as water as its daily intake. Relating that back to the website feeding chart (i.e. 600 kg horse in medium exercise) your horse should drink, or eat as moist foods such as grass) upwards of 30 kg of water a day.

Feeding such a large amount of wet feed will help the digestive system, avoid the possiblilty of impaction and keep your horse well hydrated. My only advice would be to split it into two or more meals.

I hope the above information is useful. If you have any further queries, please contact me.

Regards

Dr. Tom Shurlock


<span style="colorurple"> </span> I don't have a bucket big enough!!

 

[SSM]

So the two big handfuls I leave soaking twice a day are not enough for fatso?!?!?!

Think I am still confused!

 

[horsegirl]

According to their website if it used as a conditioning feed then 1.75 kg (DRY) should be fed per day? I soak half a scoop which makes half a bucket and thought that was plenty.

 

[meandmyself]

Wow, sounds a bit too much to me. Glad you got an answer though.

 

[Pidge]

God I only give Pidge one scoop of soaked Speedi beet, and have to agree if go by their advice don't think I've got anything big enough to soak it in! One bag of speedi beet lasts me all winter.

 

[riotgirl]

Me too! I've just bought a new bag of speedibeet, but the old one lasted me about 5 months!

 

[kbt2661]

A sack of Speedibeet will usually last me all winter and I am feeding two, I only use it to dampen feed really as I find that too much fizzies them up.

 

[_jetset_]

Just be careful when feeding it though... it can cause legs to swell etc if fed with a high protein diet.

I used to feed it just to dampen the feed (amount wise). But then again, I am not a fan of sugar beet to be honest

 

[airedale]

At last one other person who isn't a fan of sugar beet - hurray !!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot abide the stuff and won't have it in the yard and won't have any of mine fed on it if away.

the amount of water specified in the original reply for a horse per day is correct. In 'proper' measures (i.e. Imperial) a large horse drinks 8 gallons of water per day (i.e. 4 x 2 gallon buckets) and a gallon weighs around 10 lbs - so 80 lbs of water per day is about the kg specified at a rate of 2.2 lbs to a kg.

we ask feed suppliers to go to great lengths to control the sugar content in their compound feeds. lots of people have stopped feeding the old molassed chaff because of the sugar content and feed Hi-Fi instead. We have anti-laminitic feeds and 'low sugar' feeds...........and then people go ahead and add sugar beet to the feeds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY - apart from the fact that it's cheap c**p foisted onto an unsuspecting horse food market as an otherwise unuseable byproduct from sugar production. similarly wheat bran used to be popular because it was cheap by-product of milling flour.

just think - would a horse naturally eat a sugar beet plant ?

NO NO NO

so why feed it ???????? It's NOT natural. Bran is actually more a natural horse food than s.beet and yet virtually no-one now feeds it and it gets a 'bad press'.

food (pun intended) for discussion ...........!

 

[SSM]

I feed it to get the sugar into my girl, well anysort of energy is welcome

, 25 years ago I fed it, however then we had to soak for 24 hours. I do agree however that bran still has a place in the feed groups and should not get such bad press.

 

[hussar]

[ QUOTE ]

we ask feed suppliers to go to great lengths to control the sugar content in their compound feeds. lots of people have stopped feeding the old molassed chaff because of the sugar content and feed Hi-Fi instead. We have anti-laminitic feeds and 'low sugar' feeds...........and then people go ahead and add sugar beet to the feeds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY - apart from the fact that it's cheap c**p foisted onto an unsuspecting horse food market as an otherwise unuseable byproduct from sugar production. similarly wheat bran used to be popular because it was cheap by-product of milling flour.

just think - would a horse naturally eat a sugar beet plant ?

NO NO NO

so why feed it ????????

[/ QUOTE ]

OK. I feed it. Have done for years with no ill effects. If I were worried about the sugar content I'd get the unmolassed pellets. I feed it because: it provides energy; it absorbs a colossal amount of water as this thread demonstrates and is therefore a great way of making sure a horse in hard work, as mine are, is fully hydrated; it's palatable so encourages a tired or fussy horse to eat; it makes a terrific pick-me-up in the form of beet tea for horses that don't fancy plain water.

When my youngster was hospitalised earlier this year, soaked sugar beet was the only thing he would eat for five days.

I have no idea if horses would eat sugar beet plants. Perhaps they wouldn't choose to eat oil, or limestone flour, or devils' claw, or any other of the many many things we feed them with. Doesn't mean it's not good for them. I wouldn't choose to eat codliver oil - but I know it's good for me! On the other hand, they do choose to eat ragwort, which isn't good for them. So the argument that it's not natural doesn't really hold much water.

 

[Rambo]

[quoteIf I were worried about the sugar content I'd get the unmolassed pellets.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought Speedibeet was unmolassed anyway

 

[horsegirl]

It is, and sugar beet (unmolassed) has no more sugar than a couple of apples. Do horses drink oil or eat sunflower seeds in the willd? - No but we still feed them those

 

[Hornby]

Interesting - I have long thought that feed companies over do the amounts they say you should feed of their products (and my horses are well covered not hatracks!)

 

[spaniel]

Im a big fan of sugarbeet and as far as Im aware a whole sackful of the standard mollased pellets contains about a kilo of actual sugar. Yhe whole point of the process beet goes through before we buy it is to extract as much sugar from it as possible therefore leaving the fibrous unwanted bits as waste.

Horses are designed to eat fibre, they also glean a collosal amount of 'sugar' from natural grass in the field.

I honestly think this argument about SB being sugary is spurious. Correctly soaked it is fabulous for the digestive system and if we understand that horses are designed to 'drink' food rather than eat it and are aware that up to 90% of their diet is actually water it is a feedstuff to be praised.

There are always going to be horses that 'go funny' on a feedstuff whatever it may be, some may react to being fed sugarbeet just as some react to barley or oats or even grass but digestion is an incredibly complicated process so to come down hard on one product and not look at how other things in the diet are interacting with it is somewhat blinkered.

I appreciate some hate SB but I thought Id get my pom poms out and give it a cheer!

 

[Pidge]

I thought speedi beet (as opposed to sugar beet) was 95% sugar free and approved by the laminitus trust?

 

[chestnut cob]

I was giving my cob about half a Stubbs scoop of Speedibeet (before soaking) last winter and he was getting too fat! Had to cut it down!