Theresa, we start out with pretty small helpings of beet pulp mixed with daily grain. Our beet pulp is plain, no molasses added. Check the bag label to make sure no molasses. The beets used are sugar beets, squeezed to remove sugar, still have a little sweet taste when rehydrated, not sugary though. I don't like to feed any molasses in our grain mix, gets moldy in our humid weather. We buy the beet pulp pellets, they are cheaper than the shredded beet pulp, around here. Pellets take about 3 parts water to one part beet pulp to swell up to maximum expansion. Should have no lumpy feel when you run hands thru it, add more water if still lumpy. Pellets do take longer to be ready to feed, very hot water will speed up absorbtion time. Shredded beet pulp is mixed about half water and half beet pulp for best absortion. Ready to serve much quicker. I have only had one horse who didn't care for the beet pulp right away. We do start with small quantities to begin feeding to a new horse. For the picky horse, I just put about a cup in her grain for a week, then went to a cup and a half the second week. She developed a taste for it, so we kept gradulally increasing amount to what we wanted her to eat. She did sort it out for almost a week, then started eating a little each day, then finishing it off. You do have to remove uneaten wet beet pulp. Hot days I give them a couple hours then remove. It will ferment in hot, humid temps. Colder days they have until we put them back outside to clean it up, several hours. I reduce quantity if they regularly don't finish the serving. Some horses like it any which way, while others prefer drier off the top or drippy wet from the bucket bottom. Quantity fed depends on individual. Working horses get a couple large, wet scoops. Young horse, 2-3yr old, might get 2-3 scoops of wet beet pulp. Horses not working get 1 scoop. We really like the results of feeding beet pulp, nice shiny coats, lots of working energy, fairly inexpensive to feed. Horses are not too silly to listen to riders, drivers, like straight grain fed horses can be when fit. We go thru about 50# dried pellets a week with 9 horses. Feed 5 gallons wetted beet pulp daily, between the 9. Winters, cold days, we make the beet pulp with very hot water, horses like eating warm feed. Try just feeding your horse a tiny bit to start, couple handfuls or a cup measure with his grain. Persist, over at least 2 weeks. See if he tosses it out or eats even a little. You can start increasing by tiny amounts, as he continues cleaning wet beet pulp up. Work him up to a scoop full daily, continue for a month, see how he looks. Might need to increase if he still is low-weight. That smaller amount may be all he will eat. We have a horse who only eats one scoop, all he wants. Every bit helps. I really have found no down side to feeding wet beet pulp! I would NOT advise feeding beet pulp dry, despite the information from many vets, tests, researches. We have seen SEVERAL horses choke on dry, both pellets and shredded. Horse parents just decided the wetting time was too much trouble, read the reports about feeding dry matter. Lost one horse, others had throat problems for a long time. Had not had any problems with the wet beet pulp during feeding. The beet pulp mixed in feeds is a very small percentage in the finished feed mix, not the same as feeding straight beet pulp pellets or shreds. Not worth even a single CHANCE of choking for me. Wetting the beet pulp is really not that much extra work for me, just a couple minutes.

Eddie, Enough, already! In SC. the pure sand soil type varies from place to place, yard to yard. Yet, through the years it has sustained the population, fed the Yankee Army as it pillaged and burned and contributed much in the way of research to the horticultural world. Random thoughts on the subject. 1. You seem frantic about pH. As you gain more experience and study other yards and farms noted will be the fact that plants can adapt to a wide range of situations, especially if you select some of the quality types which have been developed by Clemson, UGA, et al, specifically for the south. The best vegetable garden I have seen in the south was on Spring Island, SC. which is a very private plantation. The owner of the garden, while out riding his horse in the depths of the Island discovered the old saw mill and huge mounds of pine sawdust/bark composted over the centuries. He built raised beds and filled them with nothing but this very acid pine compost soil. The results are unbelievable. Brassicas that look like those pictures of crops grown in Alaska. 2. Suggest you not use or compost fresh animal manures in the south. It is loaded with Bahia Grass seed. Once introduced into a garden it will forever be a weeding nightmare. Ditto hairy vetch. Your best cover crop in the veggie garden is the constant use of straw and the Ruth Stout method. Look it up. 3. Nutrients added to sandy soil quickly leach into the underworld. Your job is to figure out how to slow this process down. Forget about tilling. 4. I'm going to cut to the chase here. Place all you reports, studies, questions in the back of a dark drawer for this year. Plant your winter veggie garden using several handfuls of bagged mushroom compost in each planting hole or spread in the bottom of rows plus a handful of dried molasses which will discourage various root insects. Water in as you plant. Now, spread pine needles as a mulch over all. Yes, I know they are acid. Don't worry about it. Press on. On top of the pine straw spread the dark, rich pine bark mulch mixed with any compost on hand. Over this a light scattering of straw. This should be all you need do to grow veggies, repeated annually, building the soil. Amend sandy soils at the surface. Spend your efforts on developing compost, of which 25% pine bark compost should be incorporated. Great stuff! Use it.

I think this is one of those cases of where one thing that works for somebody doesn't work for the other. The no dairy has made no difference to my complexion whatsoever. I also have adult acne (was spared as a teen though) for me it is very hormone related in what makes a difference in my monthly cycle. Of course the majority of all dairy I consume are of the organic hormone free kind so maybe the hormones in normal dairy is the cause there for others. Also read the label on the cheese you buy some of it has ingredients I would not expect to see such as Aluminum. Organic if you can find it also tastes so much better imo. Dairy such as milk and butter are large ingredients in many foods. My daughter is allergic to the proteins such as caseins and whey in dairy, but we don't take any chances with anything that contains milk or those proteins. Goat products still contains caseins and whey and are thus not in our household. Also our pediatric allergist recommends to not have any exposure to the allergen to hopefully allow her body to stop producing antibodies against it so maybe she can eat dairy later. I do drink milk and yoghurt (organic on both) at home and my daughter drinks rice milk enriched with Calcium. I try to avoid soy and adding extra estrogens with soy substitutes for her, but there are some things we buy pre-made that is dairy free and often there is soy in that instead. Don't want to add soy milk unless I have to in things. Coconut milk and Almond milk are both great for cooking when I need something, but I usually stay away from recipes calling for milk. I wish I could say eating dairy free for 2 years (I continued for about 8 months after stopping BF) did or didn't do anything for my weight, but dairy hasn't seem to have had an effect there either. Probably because I don't eat much different calorie wise. If I don't have dairy I need some other source of protein so the calories gets replaced one way or another. Of course I have to stick to around 1500-1800 calories a day to maintain weight. If I go above as in eating out where it can really blow up then I gain in no time - dairy or not. I'm personally of the belief that none of the natural foods (ie non-processed) foods we eat are necessarily bad for us (unless you have an allergy), but that moderation is the key and eating too much of anything your body doesn't need will cause you problems. However the question for me is how do I figure out what my body really need. I try to listen to food cravings when they don't relate to french fries or junk food, but not sure if that is really the key. I started with this when I noticed that I got cravings for salt (not just salty food) when my blood-pressure was on the low side of my already low-blood pressure. Since I have type 1 diabetes (very well controlled) I also try to limit my daily carb intake and eat less refined carbs since there really isn't much difference to your blood between a spoon of sugar or a slice of white bread. It both turns in to glucose and for me at the same rate as far as spiking my blood sugar vs. a whole grain bread with lots of fiber. I guess with all this blabbering my personal choice is try for moderation and avoid too much processed foods, get some exercise, and eat at home and I seem to feel and do better weight wise too.

Organic is supposed to mean at least 95% of the total ingredients are organic and the other 5% can be other. According to wikipedia: "Foods claiming to be organic must be free of artificial food additives, and are often processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients. Pesticides are allowed so long as they are not synthetic." There are also arguments that companies who label "organic" are not truly organic according the the 95% rule but are actually "using organic ingredients" or "made with organic ingredients" which requires, I'm pretty sure, at least 70% organic ingredients. But, even "organic" foods that are labeled as having 100% organic ingredients have allowances by respected organic certification agencies/organizations stating that some non-organic ingredients can be used "when organic is not available". This doesn't mean that any old non-organic main ingredient can be added when organic ingredients are not available. It means the best, natural ingredient can be added in place of the organic ingredient, with proper docummentation, until the organic is again available. This can really save a smaller company when natural disasters affect available supplies, which does happen often and can be quite harmful and sometimes entirely destructive to a small company. I know, I've worked in the industry in the past. The things added to even 100% organic are sometimes not organic and not even natural as long as they remain under a certain percentage, I think it was .03%, and they don't need to be listed on the ingredients! So, although I still think organic is best, it can be questioned. As far as added hormones, I'm uncomfortable with that. I choose to ingest dairy products that have not had added hormones or antibiotics. But, there are many arguments for and against all those practices related to hormones and antibiotics. Feeding this huge population takes hard work and right now, there are practices that we may not be comfortable with but it gets our country fed and those in other countries fed as well. I know that we haven't gone so far off into the future that we can't find our way back to sustainable agriculture and food production. And, I do feel we have the right to know what is in our food and the products we put on our bodies. Even if it seems like too much information for the masses, it is information we have a right to know. Another thing about rBHT etc: There is no need to take anyone's word for anything. Not the word of the corporation making profit off the additives and not the people who make claims against the additives. You could always go to a trusted research site, like Johns Hopkins or pubmed and search their sites for actual, documented and peer reviewed studies. See for yourself if growth hormones are in your milk or are affecting people in significant ways. And, you can decide what "significant" means for yourself. Just my thoughts... J.