Demand from horse feed market rebounding
A prairie oat initiative is about to enter its next phase.
The Prairie Oat Growers Association started the Equine Feed Oat Project as a way to increase demand in American horse markets for Canadian-grown oats, and EFOP co-ordinator Randy Strychar said the industry is beginning to see a turnaround.
Efforts had focused on examining why exports declined, but project organizers are now identifying areas for new research, while also gearing up to market oats to horse owners.
The project started in 2009 with a problem: oat exports to the U.S. horse feed market had fallen dramatically over a generation, from more than one million tonnes in the early 1990s to 200,000. Oats, which traditionally had a larger role in horse diets, had fallen out of favour.
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However, Strychar said the numbers have improved.
“We’ve seen a significant increase, almost a doubling of demand in equine markets over the last 12 months in the U.S,” he said.
“I think year to date from August through the end of February, we went from about 92,000 (tonnes) to about 180-some thousand this year.”
He attributes that to a drop in oat prices, but notes that’s only one part the picture.
“We’ve seen a significant shift in the way people are looking at formulations in the United States,” he said.
“The demand in equine markets, it’s got a lot of various components to it…. It’s not straight forward price.”
Strychar has travelled to the U.S. to speak with owners, nutritionists and feed companies in an effort to better understand why the market collapsed.
“I think you’re seeing a move away from reducing starch, whether it was oats or corn or barley or rice bran,” he said. “There was a big movement throughout most of the 2000s to reduce starch.”
The initiative included eight focus group meetings with horse owners, some who were using oats in their feed rations and some who weren’t. He said the exercise found that owners don’t know enough about what’s in their feed. Feed companies also need more information, he added.
“I think there’s been a misuse and a misapplication of the science that’s out there and there’s an appalling lack of science on a lot of equine nutrition,” he said.
EFOP’s research advisory board will meet in the coming months. Consisting of 23 industry members, it will provide direction on where POGA will funnel research money.
Strychar said a previous meeting of equine nutritionists, breeders and millers identified beta glucan, anti-oxidant, fat and protein levels as areas of interest.
“We’re not putting a dollar value on it,” said Strychar. “What we’re trying to do is get the objective completed, so I guess what it takes.”
Strychar said organizers have also mapped out a strategy that they intend to use to tout the benefits of POGA products and spread the word of its research.
“Can we get back to 1.1 million? Sure we can,” he said. “If the plant breeders and the nutritionists do their job … two million is probably achievable.”
