Clare MacLeod MSc Rnutr (independent registered equine nutritionist) and consultant to EQUIGLO – home of Quick Soak 10 MINUTE BEET – explains the benefits of feeding unmolassed sugar beet.
Unmolassed sugar beet pulp is a highly versatile and useful horse feed. It’s palatable, rich in fibre and minerals, low in sugar, almost free of starch, provides bulk, has moderate energy content and helps to rehydrate because of its water content after soaking.
Beet pulp is available as horse feed in 12-hour soak shreds, 24-hour soak pellets and 10-minute soak flakes. Despite all of the benefits, it is often under-used by horse owners because many feed it by volume after soaking, therefore feeding very little actual beet.
Naturally low in sugar and starch
Unmolassed sugar beet pulp is the fibrous material left over after sugar is extracted from sugar beet roots. It’s rich in non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) at about 60%, including pectin and hemicellulose (both types of highly fermentable fibre for horses). Only 5-7% of sugar is left and it’s naturally almost free of starch, making it non-heating and suitable for all horses and ponies.
Nutritious
Unmolassed beet pulp has a moderate energy content for horses, which was discovered by researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberystwyth a couple of decades ago.(Hyslop et al, 1998a and 1998b, Hyslop & Cuddeford, 1999, Moore-Colyer et al, 1997, 2000 and 2002, Stefansdottir, 1996). It’s higher in energy than expected through some of its NSP content being fermented in the small intestine. In fact, about a fifth of its organic matter disappears in the small intestine.(Hyslop, 1998, Hyslop et al, 1998a and 1998b, Moore-Colyer et al, 1997). Overall, the energy from sugar beet is slower-release than that from starchy concentrates because most of it is available only via micro-organism fermentation.
The same team of researchers has shown that feeding beet pulp to horses increases the digestibility of the cell wall fibre in grass hay and alfalfa, probably via its effects on the beneficial fibrolytic bacteria in the gut. (Moore-Colyer et al, 2001, Murray et al, 2008). The types of fibre it contains are more rapidly and completely fermented compared with the fibre in hay (Hyslop et al, 1999).
As well as encouraging water uptake due to its pre-feeding soak, beet pulp – because of its rich pectin content – holds water in the gut (Moore-Colyer et al, 2002), making it a useful way to encourage a good gut fluid reservoir for horses exercising for long periods of time, such as those in endurance.
Beet pulp is relatively rich in minerals compared with other straight feeds such as cereals and linseed. It has a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of about 6:1, making it useful for balancing high phosphorus straight grains and grain products, including oats and bran, and seeds such as linseed. Also, beet pulp contains high levels of iron but not enough zinc or copper to balance the shortages in grass forages.
Beneficial effects of feeding beet pulp in place of starchy grains to exercising horses have been shown by researchers, including higher muscle glycogen levels, lower lactate response and a healthier hindgut pH level (Brøkner et al, 2010 and 2012, Lindberg & Palmgren Karlsson, 2001, Palmgren Karlsson et al, 2002).
Feeding unmolassed beet pulp to horses
The most important factor is to weigh beet pulp out before soaking so that the benefits are realised. Beet pulp has been fed at up to 50% of the total diet but, generally, rates of up to 6g/kg body weight per day are recommended – 3kg maximum for a 500 kg horse (dry weight before soaking).
Researchers have shown that beet pulp can be effectively used to replace either the concentrate ration or part of the hay ration. It negates the risk of starch-associated problems as a concentrate alternative, has a much lower glycaemic index compared with oats and corn (maize), and research has shown no negative effects of replacing grain. It’s important, however, that enough is fed and the dry weight needs to be replaced, not just the volume – a scoopful of soaked beet pulp will not replace a scoopful of oats, for example.
For horses and ponies with lower energy requirements, unmolassed sugar beet is an ideal base feed to mix vitamin and mineral supplements, balancers or other supplements into because of its bulkiness after soaking and good palatability.
Unmolassed sugar beet pulp is an ideal feed for:
- Older horses and ponies as a partial hay replacer.
- Partial hay replacement if hay is poor quality or supply is short.
- Encouraging water intake, such as exercising horses, those on dry diets and during cold spells in winter.
- Horses undergoing endurance exercise.
- Horses and ponies that require a low-sugar and starch diet, such as those with laminitis, insulin resistance, PPID or exertional rhabdomyolysis (tying up).
- Horses prone to excess exuberance when fed starchy grain (replace the grain with the beet).
- Helping to balance out the calcium shortages of straight grains and seeds.
- Horses and ponies prone to digestive disturbances.
- A safe method of condition gain.
- Horses and ponies stabled all the time, including those on box rest.
References
Brøkner, C., Austbø, D., Næsset, J. A., Knudsen, K. E. B. & Tauson, A. H. (2010) The effect of sugar. beet pulp on caecal pH in Norwegian cold-blooded trotter horses. In: Ellis AD, Longland. AC, Coenen M, Miraglia N, eds. The impact of nutrition on the health and welfare of. horses. EAAP Publication No. 128. Wageningen (The Netherlands), Wageningen.Academic Publishers, pp210–212.
Brøkner, C., Austbø, D., Næsset, J. A., Knudsen, K. E. B. & Tauson, A. H. (2012) Equine precaecal and total tract digestibility of individual carbohydrate fractions and their effect on caecal pH reponse. Archives in Animal Nutrition, 66(6), pp490-506.
Hyslop, J.J. (1998) Modelling digestion in the horse. Proceedings of an Equine Nutrition Workshop, HBLB, London.
Hyslop, J.J., Tomlinson, A. L., Bailey, L. & Cuddeford, D. (1998a) Development of the mobile bag technique to study to study the degradation dynamics of forage feed constituents in the whole digestive tract of equids In: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science, p129.
Hyslop, J.J., Roy, S. & Cuddeford, D. (1998b) Ad libitum sugar beet pulp as the major fibre source in equine diets when ponies are offered a restricted amount of mature grass hay. In: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science, p132.
Hyslop, J.J. & Cuddeford, D. (1999) Soaked unmolassed sugar beet pulp as a partial forage replacer in equine diets when ponies are offered grass hay ad libitum. In: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science, p140.
Hyslop, J.J., Stefansdottir, G. L., McLean, B. M. L. & Cuddeford, D. (1999) In situ incubation sequence and its effect on degradation of food components when measured in the caecum of ponies. Animal Science, 69, pp147-156.
Lindberg, J. E. & Palmgren Karlsson, C. (2001) Effect of replacing oats with sugar beet pulp and maize oil on nutrient utilisation in horses. Equine Veterinary Journal, 33, pp585-590.
Moore-Colyer, M. J.S., Hyslop, J.J., Longland, A. C. & Cuddeford, D. (1997) Degradation of four dietary fibre sources by ponies as measured by the mobile bag technique. Proceedings of the 15th Equine Nutrition and Physiology Symposium, Texas, pp145-147.
Moore-Colyer, M.J.S., Hyslop, J.J., Longland, A.C., Cuddeford, D. (2000) Intra-caecal fermentation parameters in ponies fed botanically diverse fibre-based diets. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 84 (3), pp183-197.
Moore-Colyer, M. J.S., Hyslop, J.J., Longland, A. C. & Cuddeford, D. (2002) The mobile bag technique as a method for determining the degradation of
four botanically diverse fibrous feedstuffs in the small intestine and total
digestive tract of ponies. British Journal of Nutrition, 88, pp729–740.
Moore-Colyer, M.J.S. & A.C. Longland, A. C. (2001) The effect of plain sugar beet pulp on the in vitro gas production and in vivo apparent digestibility of hay when offered to ponies. Proceedings of the 17th Equine Nutrition and Physiology Symposium, Kentucky, pp145-147.
Murray, J. M.D., Longland, A., Hastie, P. M., Moore-Colyer, M. J. S. & Dunnett, C. (2008) The nutritive value of sugar beet pulp-substituted lucerne for equids. Animal Feed Science and Technology. 140 (1), pp110-124.
Palmgren Karlsson, C., Jansson, A., Essén-Gustavsson, B. & Lindberg, J.E. (2002) Effect of molassed sugar beet pulp on nutrient utilisation and metabolic parameters during exercise. Equine Veterinary Journal (Supplement 34), pp44-49.