Ca:Phos ratio

[Sarah Ralston <ralston@AESOP.RUTGERS.EDU>]

>Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 07:36:05 -0600
>To: Tivers@aol.com
>From: Sarah Ralston <ralston@aesop.rutgers.edu>
>Subject: Re: RC:  Ca:Phos ratio
>In-Reply-To: <d6.144b5a0.25ded3fa@aol.com>
>
>At 11:57 AM 2/18/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>Sarah,
>>
>>Tell me about beet pulp. It seems to be a ubiquitous new ingredient in
horse 
>>feeds. What are its salient points? 
>>
>>ti
>It's a by product of the sugar beet industry. In it's raw
>form it looks like ground up old shoe leather. High in cellulose
>and hemicellulose, it is readily fermented by the bacteria/protozoa
>in the hind gut of the horse to provide about 1.2 Mcal/lb energy in the 
>form of VFA's, a little soluble carbo (mainly in complex form), 8% protein.
>It is relatively high in Calcium (0.8%) and low in Phosphorus. It swells
>when in contact with water, therefore many feel that it should be soaked
before feeding. Contrary to popular belief it is not high in energy but does 
>seem to promote weight gain is hard keepers, probably due to normalization
>of the fermentation in the hind gut, since most "hard keepers"
>are already on large amounts of grain. It is a good alternate form
>of roughage and horses seem to do really well on it. 
>Hope this helps. Gotta run and give a seminar...
>Sarah