[Fairfarmhand]

I feed my dairy cows beet pulp to help them keep body condition. If I feed them grain, they simply give more milk, but the beet pulp adds some weight to their anorexic frames.

Anyhow, it's kind of expensive. $14 for a 40# bag, which lasts about 10 days.

I'm thinking of growing some in my garden next year. Anyone have any suggestions for the best kind to grow? Anyone have any experience growing beet pulp?

 

[RanchWife]

No experience but I find this very interesting, could I give this to my bottle calves as they get older to keep them from being pot bellied instead of filling out normally???

 

[Fairfarmhand]

I don't know about the pot bellied thing. Are they dairy crosses or beef animals? The dairy breeds are just pot bellied. One thing I like about beet pulp is that it's less likely to bloat a cow. I soak it in hot water, let it hydrate for a bit, mix in some Black Oil SUnflower seed and the regular grain that I feed cows. Then I feed it. On cold mornings and nights my cows love getting a warm mash to eat.

 

[RanchWife]

Beef cows, genetics mainly angus, we use pure bred bulls but the cows have some faint lingering Hereford from a few decades ago. Last year I had one bottle calf left at the end of the year and was just feeding him milk replacer trying to get him started on eating a little grass. He was a twin, so started small, born late April. While other calves on their moms fill out, my bottle calves just stay behind the curve and end up pot bellied. This little guy luckily ended up getting a cow in June. I wish there was something to give them to help them catch up with the others and wondered if beet pulp might help. Tell me more about beet pulp, what exactly is it, like the meat main part of the beet crushed to pulp??

 

[RanchWife]

Ohh I'm looking this up now, sugar beets! Okay, I thought like garden beets (here's my "I grew up I. The city" moment. We have large sugar beet facilities in our area about an hour or two away.

 

[Megan]

This is really interesting.

Have others done this? I'm still learning about this stuff and I would not have thought of beet pulp.