# Beet pulp for sheep?



## JPiantedosi (Apr 23, 2012)

We have a hand full of sheep in our flock (katahdins) that just dont seem to be putting on much weight. Can I feed them beet pulp to try to put some weight on them?

Jim


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## Barn Yarns (Oct 7, 2012)

Have you wormed them? Id start there, but yes you can feed beet pulp. I would soak it down, first, before feeding (ideally 12 hrs) Probably tho all the hay they want is better. 

I run Kats, too. I usually worm them once or twice a year.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

They will eat it, the beet pulp is a good forage feed. However you may want to do some other things too.

Among them would be to first check the teeth on the sheep doing poorly. Do they have any good length for chewing with? Are animals older, losing teeth? Old sheep just wear out their teeth, so they get less value in nutrition from what they eat. Wetted beet pulp would probably be pretty helpful to those animals. 

Have these sheep been wormed recently? Worming usually takes two doses, first to kill adult worms, second to kill worms hatched after the first batch was remove. You could get fecals done if you are hesitant to "just worm" or haven't got an idea of what worms they could have. You don't want to waste feed, filling up worms.

Third thing is looking at the quality of what sheep are eating now. While sheep are often fed lesser quality hay, no grain, the hay quality may be poor or not contain any real nutrition. Lot of that kind of hay being sold this year with drought shortages. Other sheep may be preventing these ones from getting any of the good hay or only in limited amounts.

Miscellaneous ideas would be checking hooves on the thin ones for those needing trims. Perhaps some hoof problems present that make sheep unwilling to walk far to get food and water.

Lots of reasons for certain animals to be "doing poorly" so you have to look at your whole sheep keeping set up.

Start with a few handfuls of the wet beet pulp to see if sheep will even eat it! It isn't something they are used to, so you don't want to waste it. Need to get the sheep thinking of it as food. Try mixing wet beet pulp with some oats to get them going on eating wetted beet pulp if they don't seem to like it plain. May take a while before they are consuming much wet beet pulp for you, so it could take a while to show some results on the sheep. 

Our show lambs ate it, but not much. Sure not their favorite food so we didn't persist in feeding it too long. Wetted would be easier for bad toothed sheep to consume, makes lots of bulk to fill them up, so you get better results using it.


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## JPiantedosi (Apr 23, 2012)

these sheep are all spring lambs so they arent overly old. They have all they hay they can eat, good quality grass hay. and we just wormed them about 3weeks ago. 

We've got a ton of beet pulp I may give it a shot.

Thanks
Jim


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## Barn Yarns (Oct 7, 2012)

might i suggest a fecal test since you just wormed them a bit ago? not all the wormers get everything. 

my babies from this year are quite plump.


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## JPiantedosi (Apr 23, 2012)

Well, of the 50+ head, we have about 6 that are struggling to keep up with the others. All 6 came from the same breeder as replacement ewes and Im inclined to believe that it is not a parasite issue. This is the second time they have been wormed in the 6mo that we have had them, and we gave them all a hoof trim a couple months ago. These ewes just seem to not be coming along as fast as the others. I spose it may be time to cut our losses and haul them to the sale barn with a few rams we are getting ready to cut out of the flock.

Jim


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Beet pulp won't really put weight on anything... a moderate protein feed with a 3% fat ( maybe a bit higher) will usually do what you want. Sheep, goats or cattle. Or if it's cheaper, feed 'em extra oats... easier on the gut than corn, and higher fat.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Liverflukes can make them unthrifty, and tend to be a problem if you have had a lot of rain or live in the wetter parts of the country. 
And it seems some sheep will have no to little problems with them and others... 
I agree with the others, a fecal check is a good idea. 

Beet pulp can put weight on horses, but I have never used it on sheep.
Only soak it an hour in luke warm water... other wise it can ferment. 
Some animals just won't eat it, no matter what you put in it. 

Hope you find out what is going on, nothing more frustrating than sheep not up to par.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

bergere said:


> Only soak it an hour in luke warm water... other wise it can ferment.


Sorry to say that an hour soaking, even using hot water, won't get the pelleted beet pulp moist enough for feeding. The pelleted beet pulp just takes longer soaking to get it totally soft. Sticking your hand into it and squeezing, will tell you if the wet stuff still has lumps, needs more soaking.

Using very hot water, covered container, about 3hours soaking is the shortest time pelleted beet pulp can be ready. Animals like the wet beet pulp warm in cold weather and often eat it better.

If the wet beet pulp "smells bad", then perhaps fermentation has started. We get no fermentation in cold weather at all. Summer heat, 70Fs and above, yes fermentation will start in about 6 hours. Smell is very noticable.

Using shredded beet pulp to soak, makes the mash ready MUCH faster to feed. However the price of shredded usually is a couple dollars higher than for the pelleted beet pulp. You need to let it soak about 20-30 minutes. Again, squeeze the wet stuff with your hand, see that it is all soft before feeding. You will use a LOT more water with the pellets than the shredded, to have the correct consistancy of wet beet pulp. Some animals like it really sloppy wet, while others like the wet beet pulp more like drained off, cooked spinach.

We feed the pellets wetted, because the price per bag is a lot cheaper than shredded. I think feeding wet beet pulp is a matter of training the various species to like it as a food. Mix small quantities with other foods/grains until they are eating it regularly, cleaning it up. Then reduce the grain and increase the wet beet pulp quantity a little at a time. 

The dry shreds, when FED DRY ALONE, will stick in the throat of animals. Same way they stick to your wet hand if you put it into the bag. Animal continues to eat more dry shreds, which can and do make a huge wad in the throat to cause choke. Sometimes you can get the wad broken up, other times trying to do that will cause great damage in the throat and esophagus, which they may not recover from. Heard about a number of choked animals, when owner gets lazy, decides to NOT SOAK their beet pulp product anymore.

Just a warning, so you know what bad can happen feeding dry. I have heard about "studies" done feeding dry, where they claim to have no problems. I KNOW the horses who have died or been damaged when fed dry shreds. 

Not worth the "time saved" to feed dry shreds or pellets to ANY animal for us. If the wet beet pulp is not made that day, animals go without it. We will do better the next day. Cost of Vet visit or losing an animal is high, trying to fix a choke.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

We can agree to disagree.
Been doing this a long, long time.

The pelleted beet pulp, to make it soft.. only takes about an hour.
Comes out light, fluffy and very soft. Nothing hard anywhere. 
If it is not super soft, my older mare won't eat it.

Could be the brands are different in the processing, I don't know.

Mare won't even touch the shreds... which I also soaked. Not sure why,, different texture maybe.

Have had friends soak the pellets for 12 hours... it has always fermented and they ended up with sick horses.




goodhors said:


> Sorry to say that an hour soaking, even using hot water, won't get the pelleted beet pulp moist enough for feeding. The pelleted beet pulp just takes longer soaking to get it totally soft. Sticking your hand into it and squeezing, will tell you if the wet stuff still has lumps, needs more soaking.
> 
> Using very hot water, covered container, about 3hours soaking is the shortest time pelleted beet pulp can be ready. Animals like the wet beet pulp warm in cold weather and often eat it better.
> 
> ...


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Guess we will have to disagree. I have never been able to get my beet pulp pellets soft in an hour!! Much as I wished I could!! 

My pellets will soak overnight, be non-fermented if the weather is not warm. No smell to them. With warm weather, yeah they could start fermenting if temps overnight are up to the 70Fs or above. Animals get fed first thing in the AM, wet beet pulp is removed after an hour if they don't eat it on warm to hot days.

As you say, must be a difference in the way the pellets are prepared by the manufacturer. Maybe they cook our pellets longer, they are darned hard! But not dusty until the very bottom of the bag by the seam. Not much pellet breakage with handling of bags. Which is good, to me.

Our animals, mostly horses, don't care if we feed shredded or pellets, eat what we give them. They just care if the wet stuff is drained or wet slop. The geldings like it sloppy, get fed from the bottom of the soaking bucket. The girls are more picky, want the wet stuff drained a bit, so get fed from the top of the soaking bucket. The cattle didn't care, just wanted their grain mixed with wet beet pulp of some kind! Sheep liked it drained, not sloppy.



bergere said:


> We can agree to disagree.
> Been doing this a long, long time.
> 
> The pelleted beet pulp, to make it soft.. only takes about an hour.
> ...


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## ROCKHOME (Mar 21, 2008)

tapeworms are not affected by usual wormers...and some breeders have em bad~!~ need to do a FECAL...


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## ranlan (Mar 21, 2005)

Since sheep are ruminants, it won't hurt them to eat beet pulp that is fermenting! They can eat silage which is also fermented. You don't want to feed sour beet pulp to horses, but the sheep can eat it! And yes it does put weight on horses, I feed it daily!


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