Tracy Wessel
Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:02:40 -0800
The only danger in dry beet pulp is more for horses. Beet pulp can expand to more than six times its size, and so between the gastric juices and water consumption, there is impaction risk with horses. Following your research with interest. Could it just be that in the end all sheep are better off with the most natural diet possible, in terms of flavor and quality of meat or wool? Gains are probably slower, but what about long term flock health and such? With the horse breeding industry, particularly in Kentucky, so much has been learned even about pasture and about creating the more natural pasture rather than seeding for one type of grass. That will be my next question. What's in your pasture? There are ruminant and poultry seed mixes available, but they are hard to come by and expensive... leaving the horse pasture mix the easiest to obtain. I can't remember which university site I found that listed beet pulp as a suitable roughage for sheep. But I will have to go and look to see if it comments on fiber or meat quality. On Dec 11, 2007, at 12:26 PM, blackbelly- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:17:35 -0800 > From: "Barb Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Feeding Trivia > To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info> > > > The lambs are beginning to accept beet pulp. I will have shredded B/P > on Wednesday (my sheep show a marked preference for un-soaked foods). > > In 30 days or thereabouts, I will come back and tell you what, if any, > impact going to an all forage diet has on their rate of gain. The > lambs > presently average about 45 lb. with a .35 pound average daily gain > from > birth, .05 less than the minimum I would like to see. Some are over, > some are under. There are nine lambs. > > Regards, > Barb Lee _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info