Sugarbeet - dry or wet weight?

[fatponee]

This is probably a really stupid question, so don't laugh :)

When working out how much sugar beet a scoop holds, should I weigh it dry or when it's wet?

[virtuallyhorses]

No laughing because I actually had to think about that for a while. I assume you are working out your feeding regime and calculating weight <> volume so that you know how many calories you are feeding?

Your basis should be dry weight. However, with sugarbeet you do have to consider wet volume because of course your horse's stomach can only take a certain amount of food at a time. So it's not a stupid question at all! :)

[fatponee]

Thanks for your reply. :) You explained it really well, but being a dunce, I'm still in a muddle!

You're right, I am working out the feed rations for my horse. I estimate that I need to feed about 1kg of sugar beet a day, along with the rest of his feed. I've worked out that 100g of dry sugar beet = just under 1kg once its been soaked. Would this be the right amount to feed for my boy?

[Est]

It's usual to decide the ration on dry weight, and weigh out that dry weight for feeding, and then to soak the dry weight in however much water is needed (usually 2/3 shreds to 1/3 water, or 1/2 pellets to 1/2 water).
The soaked weight is simply weight added by water, so although the water makes the feed more bulky and makes each meal bigger, it doesn't contribute any extra to his feed values at all.
As VH says, you just want to be sure that the soaked-up water doesn't make the feed too substantial for his stomach size! His stomach will only be able to hold approx 1.5-2.5kgs (depends very much on his height/build) at any one time. So long as each individual meal doesn't come to more than that, then his stomach would be comfortable holding that meal.
As a guideline, in general you wouldn't want to feed more than 1.8kgs dry weight sugarbeet per day to a large horse.
Feeding 100g dry weight sugarbeet would only provide 1.5 MJ/DE (horsey calories) - not a lot! So the chances are, you have worked out that he needs 1kg dry weight sugarbeet per day (providing 10.5 MJ/DE)? If so, and he's a pony, this would probably need splitting between at least two meals :)
Wouldn't it be easier if they just ate pizza :rolleyes:

[fatponee]

Ahhhh I see! Now it all becomes clear. Yep, I did want to feed him 1kg per day, so the little teaspoons worth that he's getting at the moment isn't quite enough!!

Thanks so much for your help. Bailey will be very happy that he'll now get breakfast as well as dinner :)