Beet Pulp??

KSALguy · #1 10/17/10, 02:45 PM

i keep hearing of people useing Beet pulp, i have never seen it for sale in the feed stores i have been too, so i got to thinking, if you put beets thru a Juicer would that be the same thing?? the more i think about it it would be a good idea to grow some of the big Sugar Beets and run them thru the juicer, use the pulp for animal feed and then see what would need to happen to make some sugar from the juice?? just me useing my time to day dream really but what do you think?

Our Little Farm · #2 10/17/10, 02:48 PM

Sounds like a good idea. We get our beet pulp from tractor supply.

LoneStrChic23 · #3 10/17/10, 03:08 PM

Our tractor supply sells it too. Standlee brand and you can buy it in pellets or shredded.

Best Wishes,
Crystal
http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspot.com

LoneStrChic23 · #4 10/17/10, 03:12 PM

Came across this interesting lil' bit on beet pulp when I was trying to decide what I wanted to add in my grain mix...it was wrote with horses in mind, not goats, but still interesting I thought:

http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/beetpulp.shtml

Best Wishes,
Crystal
http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspot.com

Alice In TX/MO · #5 10/17/10, 03:18 PM

If you are going to grow the beets, can't you just chop them and feed them to the goats?

Our Little Farm · #6 10/17/10, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStrChic23

Our tractor supply sells it too. Standlee brand and you can buy it in pellets or shredded.

Best Wishes,
Crystal
http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspot.com

We bought pellets.

KSALguy · #7 10/17/10, 03:23 PM

well i was thinking more of the feasability of feeding at milking time, in addition to useing it to feed other members of the barn yard, its just a day dream really at this point,

Pony · #8 10/17/10, 05:42 PM

I have seed for sugar beets, and next year (God willing) I will grow them and just chop them up. No need to put them through the shredder or anything.

I'm also going to try them as rabbit food.

Oat Bucket Farm · #9 10/17/10, 05:46 PM

We buy the shreds from the local co-op.

Whisperwindkat · #10 10/17/10, 11:10 PM

You could try to chop the beets in the blender, but sugar beets would tear it up asap. Yes, you can grow the sugar beets or mangle beets (same family of beets) and then simply chop them. They will in this form have much more sugar than the beet pulp which is what is left after sugar extraction. You also might want a small hatchet to chop them. A regular knife isn't going to cut them. They used to use special beet cutters and they were heavy and razor sharp. Not sure if you could even get them anymore, although Lehman's might have them. We grow all varieties of beets for livestock feed. This was our first year extracting sugar from sugar beets and we will definitely be growing more than we did this year. A lot of sugar from small acreage. Anyway, all our critters love them. Blessings, Kat

KSALguy · #11 10/17/10, 11:23 PM

how do you extract the sugar>? do you boil down the juice? also what part of alabama are you from?

Whisperwindkat · #12 10/18/10, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSALguy

how do you extract the sugar>? do you boil down the juice? also what part of alabama are you from?

I chopped up the beets into smallish pieces, then boiled them in a large pot of water. Enough water to cover the beets. Once the beets were tender I then drained off the juice and cooked it down. Once it had reduced in volume, I turned off the heat and let it cool. Then I scraped out the crystals and put them on a pan (tilt pan slightly)to drain off any extra moisture there might be. I just kept repeating this process until there were no more crystals forming. Once the sugar was dry enough, I simply put it in a large glass jar for storage. The critters got the beet pulp that was left and I just fed it still wet. It was time consuming, but considering the cost of sugar rising like it is we have decided it is definitely worth it. We probably could have gotten more had we let our beets fully mature, they were still a little young. We planted in early spring and harvested about June. It was really hot and the greens looked like they were suffering, so we didn't want to lose what we had. This fall we planted more and will let them be until next spring, hopefully this will work well for us. We will know this coming spring. We are in central Alabama in between Montgomery and Selma. I take it by your avatar that you are somewhere in the Dothan/Enterprise area. Anyway, it was a fun project and good farm lesson for our kids. Hopefully, it will be another step towards independence for us as well. Blessings, Kat

KSALguy · #13 10/18/10, 12:24 PM

that doesnt sound bad at all, i bet you could do something symilar with the juice gained from juiceing the beets, well unless the sugar stays in the fibers and has to be cooked out form there before it will release? actually that sounds about right, like cooking the starch out of a potato.
yes i am down on the north side of Dothan between Dothan and Ozark,

Jay27 · #14 10/18/10, 03:12 PM

Dried beet pulp available at the farm store is a by-product, thus its affordable price ($6 for 50lbs here). It is what is left over after the sugar is extracted. 'They' dry it out, add a bit of molassas to make it palatable, and there you go, a cheap fiber feed. (Grazing critters metabolize the fiber into calories - beet pulp is actually pretty high calorie when all is said and done). I suppose you could make it yourself, but if you don't extract that sugar it would be way too high calorie. Straight sugar upsets the pH of the GI tract in most grazing animals.

KSALguy · #15 10/18/10, 03:15 PM

well am very glad its found so redily in Minnesota, i am in Alabama, i have yet to FIND it, thus my "idea"

Jay27 · #16 10/18/10, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSALguy

well am very glad its found so redily in Minnesota, i am in Alabama, i have yet to FIND it, thus my "idea"

I actually think southern MN is where the majority of sugar beets are grown... I believe 'Crystal' brand sugar is from beets. They actually hoe the rows by hand since some of those beets get pretty big and the tractors damage them even with wide row spacing.

It would seem some feed store would be able to get it for you - maybe a chain like Tractor Supply. It is such a common feed in the Midwest that it is hard to imagine others not being able to get it.

Perfect you idea and you can make table sugar AND critter feed

Whisperwindkat · #17 10/18/10, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSALguy

well am very glad its found so redily in Minnesota, i am in Alabama, i have yet to FIND it, thus my "idea"

We have several feed stores around here who have beet pulp. I am coming to Dothan next Monday to drop some photos off at the Peanut Festival. If you would like I could bring you some and give you the addresses of the feed stores that have it. Let me know if I could help you out. Blessings, Kat

KSALguy · #18 10/18/10, 03:34 PM

we have a TSC down here i will see if they dont have it now, is this Beet Pulp a relatively new thing? with in the last few years? it seems to be anyway,

thats hopefully what i have in mind makeing both critter feed and sugar, it would be nice anyway,

KSALguy · #19 10/18/10, 03:37 PM

i havent had goats sence i moved down to Alabama about 5 years ago, but once i get back into the real country i will have them again, right now i am in Country Limbo as it wer lol,

Whisperwindkat · #20 10/18/10, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSALguy

we have a TSC down here i will see if they dont have it now, is this Beet Pulp a relatively new thing? with in the last few years? it seems to be anyway,

thats hopefully what i have in mind makeing both critter feed and sugar, it would be nice anyway,

No beet pulp has been around for years. I think more people have found out about its benefits as a feed. I have been feeding beet pulp to horses for many years. My trainer when I was a kid taught me about its benefits for hard keepers. Blessings, Kat