Alfalfa Cubes and Pellets and Beet Pulp - Oh My!

[hunterjumper98]

The choices can be a bit overwhelming! I have never owned a horse that is hard to put weight on and keep it on before, so I am out of my element here!

I recently purchased a 6 year old Hanoverian gelding to bring up into the hunter world. Super exciting! However, I have been having trouble developing a nutritional plan that keeps his weight up without shoving him full of concentrates and making him a little loopy. He is still growing and filling out, so he is consuming quite a bit. This is the first time where I have boarded at a barn that does not supply feed for you.

I recently switched him from Nutrena Performance to Seminole Dynasport about three weeks ago as he was eating 8 lbs a day and still losing weight. I was dumping the feed in him without any results and wasting my money. He switched over completely just fine and is doing well - he just hasn’t been gaining like I had hoped. I don’t want to be pumping him full of concentrates as he can be quite a little fireball, and I feel that he may need something to supplement his slightly lower quality grass hay.

Right now, he is eating 2 1/2 lb of Seminole Dynasport twice a day with three flakes of grass hay in the morning and pasture in the afternoon. He is in moderate work 4-5 times a week and will soon be showing!

I have toyed with the idea of adding alfalfa cubes to his diet to increase his forage consumption and add calories, but I have heard very mixed reviews on whether this would make him hot or not along with the dangers of choking even when soaked. I do not want to feed actual bales of alfalfa due to the risk of blister beetles and the difficulty of buying the hay just for him - my older guy does NOT need more calories haha! The co-op barn where I board does not supply alfalfa hay, so I would have to be purchasing it from a dealer and hauling it to the farm myself. Therefore, I am limited to looking at either cubes or pellets. I am not sure if beet pulp would be the answer as his grain already has dried pulp in it. I’m not sure if that would just be redundant or not, but a lot of people seem to like it for weight building. I have never personally tried it.

Just to put it out there - I don’t want to be spending a fortune on mixing and matching beet pulp and alfalfa because I have limited storage space and money due to already spending a bit of money on this higher quality feed. I want to get the most bang for my buck while feeding him the best quality ingredients to suit his needs.

My question is: Which would be the better option for a young performance horse - alfalfa cubes, pellets, or beet pulp? Would you feed it soaked once or twice a day?

Please educate me!

[Larbear]

FWIW, I feed my guy soaked alfalfa cubes twice a day. I’ve tried alfalfa pellets several times, several different brands but he won’t eat it.

[WNT]

He’s not a youngster growing and muscling up, but my older TB was getting alfalfa cubes and beet pulp on top of 8 pounds a day of Triple Crown senior last winter due to the barn’s hay not agreeing with his dentition.

His soaked meal nearly filled a five gallon bucket, which gave me conniptions, but he would Hoover it down twice a day without a hitch.

How much of the co-op hay does he get, and how is the quality? Does he have access to decent pasture a few hours a day?

IIRC, alfalfa will have higher protein than beet pulp so you may get more bang for your guy needing to build muscle as he’s growing and working. If he’s getting limited hay and/or pasture, I’d start the soaked alfalfa cubes twice a day.

[JB]

A 6yo WB can still be growing both up and out, especially out. He’s probably just really gotten a good start of the filling out phase. They just aren’t growing like even a 4yo though.

Right now, he is eating 2 1/2 lb of Seminole Dynasport twice a day with three flakes of grass hay in the morning and pasture in the afternoon. He is in moderate work 4-5 times a week and will soon be showing!

How much do those 3 flakes weigh, roughly. What does he get overnight?

Can you post a picture of him? I’m interested in seeing if he really does need weight, or just muscle.

Beet pulp comes with a high volume:calorie ratio, which is detrimental to horses who need to consume more calories in less time, which is possibly the case here.

Alfalfa pellets are much easier to store and feed than either beet pulp, or hay cubes. If they are soft enough - you can easily break them apart - they don’t even have to be soaked (barring the horse himself needing things soaked).

Because the stomach has a volume limit, it’s best to feed things twice a day when talking about the volumes here. However, since you’re only feeding 2.5lb of the Dynasport a feeding, you COULD add 2-3lb of alfalfa pellets to his night feeding, assuming he’s in a stall and has more time to finish. The ideal would be adding 1-2lb of the pellets to each feeding.

The Seminole site doesn’t list the sugar content, just the starch (9%) which is odd since everything else I looked at lists both. So I’d want to know the sugar content to get the overall NSC content.

[btswass]

I would get hay in front of him every minute he isn’t outside. My last horse was on beet pulp and grain to keep his weight up and was getting so much he ended up colicing. I got rid of the beet pulp and added black oil sunflower seeds instead which worked well. What is the fat content in the grain your giving him?

[JB]

@btswass

What is the fat content in the grain your giving him?

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12% protein 14% fat

http://seminolefeed.com/shop/equine-feeds/seminole-wellness/seminole-wellness-dynasport/

[JB]

He definitely doesn’t need to lose weight, but he does look really good here. His muscling will increase as his correct work increases.

If you can, take a bathroom scale to the barn with you one day, and grab 3 flakes to weigh yourself with them, then without. Weigh several random 3 flakes to get a bit of an average.

How much grass is actually in the pasture?

Since he’s getting enough forage, for the purpose of long-stem fiber, you don’t need to be concerned that hay pellets are short-stem fiber.

I would bump him to 3lb of the Dynasport (see if you can find the sugar content, that’s a little important), and then add 1lb of alf pellets each feeding, and see how that goes after a few weeks. 6lb of a good quality feed, especially if it’s on the lower side of NSC, is really not a lot, and not enough to be concerned about.

[FinallyMadeIt]

The Seminole feeds are wonderful. I am jealous that you can get it and I can’t! I feel like you will get great results using the Dynasport. Adding alfalfa pellets won’t hurt him IMO. In the past I have gotten good results with them with only on rare occasion a horse getting hot on alfalfa.

Here is an example of what my 6 year old Saddlebred gets twice per day. He was actively losing weight on a ton of Strategy before I switched him to this plan. He is also much calmer and easier to handle now.

2 lbs Triple Crown Senior
2 lbs alfalfa pellets
0.5 lb rice bran supplement
1 scoop Platinum Performance

The rice bran does have a slightly higher NSC but it is a source of fat and protein. I feel like it’s getting me good results without making my horse hot at all. It’s something else for you to consider.

[hunterjumper98]

Thank you! That’s the struggle with him - keeping him at this weight. He’s constantly changing body wise, so as soon as you get some weight on him, he starts to look ribby again - especially now that he is actually having to use himself. :rolleyes: I can’t wait until he starts filling out and actually feels like I have some horse under me haha!

I will definitely weigh his hay tomorrow morning when I feed. It is a pretty average amount. The pastures have a pretty good amount of grass since it has been raining, so I think he is getting an adequate amount of grass in pasture.

I checked my local feed store late this afternoon, and the hay cubes are actually cheaper than the pellets. Would it make a difference if I fed cubes vs pellets? I wouldn’t think getting more forage to supplement our medium quality hay would be a bad thing. Since twice a day is better, I probably would only start feeding 1/4 lb of soaked cubes twice a day to see if there is any difference in addition to increasing his feed.

I will look into the NSC of the feed. I just emailed the company to see what the calculated value is. It says low sugar, but who knows what that exactly means haha!

[stb]

I have a folder from Seminole that lists the starch and sugar content of all of their feeds. The DynaSport is 9% starch and 6% sugar. It’s one of their lower sugar feeds.

[FinallyMadeIt]

@hunterjumper98

Thank you! That’s the struggle with him - keeping him at this weight. He’s constantly changing body wise, so as soon as you get some weight on him, he starts to look ribby again - especially now that he is actually having to use himself. :rolleyes: I can’t wait until he starts filling out and actually feels like I have some horse under me haha!

I will definitely weigh his hay tomorrow morning when I feed. It is a pretty average amount. The pastures have a pretty good amount of grass since it has been raining, so I think he is getting an adequate amount of grass in pasture.

I checked my local feed store late this afternoon, and the hay cubes are actually cheaper than the pellets. Would it make a difference if I fed cubes vs pellets? I wouldn’t think getting more forage to supplement our medium quality hay would be a bad thing. Since twice a day is better, I probably would only start feeding 1/4 lb of soaked cubes twice a day to see if there is any difference in addition to increasing his feed.

I will look into the NSC of the feed. I just emailed the company to see what the calculated value is. It says low sugar, but who knows what that exactly means haha!

The only differences between the cubes and pellets is that cubes must be soaked and cubes serve as long stem forage and pellets do not. If I had a choice, I would feed cubes but in a boarding situation it can be hard to have them soak feed.

I used to live in GA but in the very southern part of the state. It seemed that the grass was just not as nutritious there and no matter how much the horses ate they would still be a little skinny unless you supplemented with grain or good hay. It could be different in the more central or norther parts of the state though.

[JB]

@hunterjumper98

I checked my local feed store late this afternoon, and the hay cubes are actually cheaper than the pellets.

Cubes are usually in 40lb bags, pellets usually in 50lb bags. You need to know the cost per pound.

Would it make a difference if I fed cubes vs pellets? I wouldn’t think getting more forage to supplement our medium quality hay would be a bad thing.

The difference is in how long it takes to eat each one. It takes less time to eat 1lb of pellets than 1lb of cubes, so if time is a factor, pellets are better. As well, on a per-volume basis, it’s far more convenient to store pellets.

Since twice a day is better, I probably would only start feeding 1/4 lb of soaked cubes twice a day to see if there is any difference in addition to increasing his feed.

1/2lb of alfalfa is roughly 500 calories - almost insignificant in the scheme of the close to 20,000 calories he’s probably eating now. I’m not saying not to, or to add more, just giving you perspective.

@stb

I have a folder from Seminole that lists the starch and sugar content of all of their feeds. The DynaSport is 9% starch and 6% sugar. It’s one of their lower sugar feeds.

Thanks - I don’t know why they don’t list sugar for this one, oversight on their part I guess. 15% isn’t terrible for sure. There are some lower ones, but 15% doesn’t really bother me too much.

[annikak]

How is beet pulp considered? Long or short stem (Does that sound stupid?? It may) but trying to figure out if feeding beep pulp and pellets, what the nutrition plus benefit for those poor equines on limited pasture would be? Trying to supplement limited pasture- hay is hard to get at times so want to do the best for them. Want to feed what is best I can-tia

[hunterjumper98]

Cubes from my feed store come in a 50 lb bag priced at $15 while pellets are priced at $19 for a 50 lb bag. It would be cheaper in the long run to buy the cubes. Plus, they will get soaked overnight and during the day in the fridge, so time won’t be a huge factor!

I agree that 1/2 lb alfalfa is going to be pretty insignificant calorie wise, but I do plan on upping it once he is weaned onto them. I don’t want to upset his tummy too much since I did switch feeds not too long ago! After a few days, I plan on upping it to 1/2 lb per feeding and so on until I get to a quantity that seems to keep the weight on.

Thank you for your help! That was very helpful!!

[JB]

@annikak

How is beet pulp considered? Long or short stem (Does that sound stupid?? It may) but trying to figure out if feeding beep pulp and pellets, what the nutrition plus benefit for those poor equines on limited pasture would be? Trying to supplement limited pasture- hay is hard to get at times so want to do the best for them. Want to feed what is best I can-tia

Beet pulp shreds functions as long-stem fiber. It’s literally about the length of the fibers 1" or longer is considered long-stem.

If your question is about beet pulp shreds vs bp pellets, the shreds are lots easier to feed, as the soaking time is significantly less than the pellets.

If forage is limited, then the shreds are the way to go in terms of long-stem fiber…

But, hay cubes would be better still, as there is more nutrition in them.

@hunterjumper98

Cubes from my feed store come in a 50 lb bag priced at $15 while pellets are priced at $19 for a 50 lb bag. It would be cheaper in the long run to buy the cubes. Plus, they will get soaked overnight and during the day in the fridge, so time won’t be a huge factor!

When will he be eating them? That’s really the time factor - how long it takes him to eat.

I agree that 1/2 lb alfalfa is going to be pretty insignificant calorie wise, but I do plan on upping it once he is weaned onto them. I don’t want to upset his tummy too much since I did switch feeds not too long ago! After a few days, I plan on upping it to 1/2 lb per feeding and so on until I get to a quantity that seems to keep the weight on.

Thank you for your help! That was very helpful!!

Good plan. You’ll want to aim for an amount - let’s say 3lb of the Dynasport and 1lb alf pellets each feeding - and then let that be for maybe 2 weeks or so, using a weight tape at Day 0 and Day 14 to help, and see how that goes. If there’s nothing, then you can increase from there.

[annikak]

@JB

Beet pulp shreds functions as long-stem fiber. It’s literally about the length of the fibers 1" or longer is considered long-stem.

If your question is about beet pulp shreds vs bp pellets, the shreds are lots easier to feed, as the soaking time is significantly less than the pellets.

Thanks! I am planning on feeding BeetPulp shreds and hay pellets (I got alfalfa/tim pellets this time) but wondering if I should do cubes instead. Its all soaked then Topped with rice bran and empower as the mineral/vit supp. I really appreciate your input on this… The pasture here is terrible still. In a few years, this may not be as big of an issue…until then…

[JB]

Whether you should/need to use hay cubes depends on how much hay/grass he’s getting. If he’s getting at least 1% of his body weight in that, it’s probably not necessary - better, but not necessary. It would be better to get at least 1.5% of his body weight in long-stem fiber.

[annikak]

I honestly don’t think he is getting enough if it were just the miserable grass in his pasture. So, figure that I want to add what I think he needs and adjust as body condition changes. Overall, he is in great shape now- gotta get him to stay that way!

[FinallyMadeIt]

@hunterjumper98

Cubes from my feed store come in a 50 lb bag priced at $15 while pellets are priced at $19 for a 50 lb bag. It would be cheaper in the long run to buy the cubes. Plus, they will get soaked overnight and during the day in the fridge, so time won’t be a huge factor!

I agree that 1/2 lb alfalfa is going to be pretty insignificant calorie wise, but I do plan on upping it once he is weaned onto them. I don’t want to upset his tummy too much since I did switch feeds not too long ago! After a few days, I plan on upping it to 1/2 lb per feeding and so on until I get to a quantity that seems to keep the weight on.

Thank you for your help! That was very helpful!!

That pricing seems high for alfalfa pellets and cubes. I can get alfalfa pellets or cubes for $10-12 a bag, depending on which brand you buy. But it is the midwest so things are a little cheaper usually.

[crosscreeksh]

@btswass

I would get hay in front of him every minute he isn’t outside. My last horse was on beet pulp and grain to keep his weight up and was getting so much he ended up colicing. I got rid of the beet pulp and added black oil sunflower seeds instead which worked well. What is the fat content in the grain your giving him?

This!! Wayyyy more hay…every minute when he is not on grass he should have hay in front of him. I feed soaked alfalfa pellets, beet pulp and rice bran also. Rice bran makes my TB goofy, but not anyone else. LOTS of good quality hay is the best, simplest method!!