[RC] beet pulp and mineral absorption - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
>I am not sure this
was the study originally sited, as this one doesn't seem to me to address
specifically the issue of beet pulp effects on mineralization >in young horses. I thought I remembered
a study that specifically spoke to that. I guess the bottom line for me
is that I would find another source of >added
calories for young horses until I thoroughly understand the issues.
Let me see if I can clarify this a little.
Virtually any high fiber diet tends to bind up a little more calcium than a diet
lower in fiber, say, one that was primarily sugars, starch and other simple
carbohydrates. It doesn’t bind it up entirely, it doesn’t
automatically result in mineral deficiencies and it doesn’t spell
orthopedic disaster for babies being fed a high fiber diet (and I know no one
is leaping to this conclusion, I’m just nipping it in the bud before
someone does)J. Obviously, horses are evolved to live on a high
fiber diet, and can develop some pretty severe problems if forced to subsist on
a diet that is NOT forage/fiber based.
Keep in mind that if you went to the other extreme, eliminated
the high fiber, and fed primarily a diet rich in simple carbohydrates, you’d
have probably a lot MORE nutritional issues than a slight decrease in calcium
absorption. It would be kind of like someone saying that they don’t
want their horse developing an impaction colic from stemmy hay, so they’re
eliminating all hay from the horse’s diet, and only feeding straight
grain. Yikes! Get the picture here---let’s not throw the baby
out with the bath water. The people primarily interested in this data are
the feed manufacturers who then know it’s perfectly all right to continue
to formulate high-fiber rations---you just need to allow for slightly lower
mineral absorption rates. That’s what ration formulation is all
about---you are continuously balancing different ratios of nutrients to make
sure enough is absorbed at an appropriate level.
Keep in mind that the study cited (and many others like it) are
exploring the tiniest minutiae in determining exactly how different diet
compositions affect body tissues during different stages of production. The
primary take-home message here would be “a few mineral requirements are a
little higher with high fiber diets than with diets based on simple
carbohydrate sources.” Dr. Lawrence (whose research group at Univ
of Ky published quite a bit of the research demonstrating the good things beet
pulp does in the hind gut) would be more than a little startled if anyone
derived “don’t feed beet pulp to babies” from any of her
highly respected body of research.
