What sort of revenues MUST your broodmares produce ...

[TrueColours]

for you to justify continuing to breed them and keep them in your broodmare band?

I saw these comments posted on another forum, where a poster was asking if she should breed her mare again this year and this was the justification given (from her end) for wanting to continue breeding this mare:

Every foal I've ever had, has sold. I've had no problem selling my backyard no pedigree having babies, before I really learned what pedigrees for. I sold a grade 2 year old this year for $500. Which isn't bad. I never have a problem selling. So.. With that said.


I shuddered to think that in her eyes, getting $500.00 for a grade two year old was "acceptable" and a valid reason for continuing to get this mare pregnant

Another poster commented and said they were pleased to get $2000.00 - $2500.00 for their weanlings and yearlings as they owned the stallion, and all of the mares ran out in huge pastures, foaled out there, the babies lived out there, so their costs were virtually nil on them from conception to sale so for the 30 or so they produced each year, they made approximately $60,000 on them

What MUST your weanling and yearling babies sell for, in order for you to cover normal maintenance costs, extra "surprise" costs that crop up occassionally, advertising and promotional costs, etc and offer you a decent return on investment on the money that you have tied up in this baby for 1-2 years from conception to sale?

[camohn]

Cost to produce is about 3800 for a newborn foal. Add about a thousand a year after that...and that is WITH us growing our own hay! That is for stud fee, grain and vets. That is for a year gone right, not including the hosptial bill one year for the red bag foal and stuff like that. It used to be about 3500 but with inflation and a quick tally of the last crop it is up a few hunderd dollars. $500.00 would not even cover a stud fee.......
When we had our own stallion it IS true that there was no stud fee. However.....I did find that taking into account the cost of purchase/feed/vet/collection school/advertising/inspection fees for Mr. Studly.......having a stallion was NOT cheaper than buying a stud fee!!
I generally get 5K for a Paint foal or an in utero WB sale, around 7,500 for an on the ground WB to pre inspection. Sadly since the APHA devaluates unPainted Paints with few classes to show in and their own special lower stud book just because they missed out on the spots........if a Paint comes out a breeding stock I have to sell for break even if I am lucky.

[EquusMagnificus]

It varies according to different factors but I can sell my foals for a relatively cheap price because I keep my expenses low but nothing in the $500 range!! :lol:

Or I can just keep them until they get going under saddle. While it is not my ideal scenario, it is not out of question. I love breaking my own babies!

[FriesianX]

$500?!?!? A well foal exam costs almost that much! Do they feed their mares and foals? Worm and vaccinate? Wait, I probably don't wanna know the answer...

Even owning my own stallion - I figure $2500 to $3500 for basic feeding, vaccines and worming, collection and ultrasounds, well foal checks, registration, etc. Getting them to 6 months of age. That doesn't include amortization of the initial cost of the mare (nice broodies didn't use to be free:cry:), and the cost of campaigning a stallion!

But - if you don't bother with feeding, vaccines, checking the mares, you just figure an ocassional mare will die from twinning, your stallion runs with the mares, well, in that case, I guess $500 is more than nothing.

[Donella]

500 bucks. Man, I can imagine the quality she breeds and the fabulous care she provides her horses with. :no:

We had planned to sell the offspring as foals, but have now decided against it, for the most part. It is much better to get them going under saddle, develope them a bit and then place them in a great home. Of course, this is higher risk but we are really looking forward to seeing what they develope into and it is also nice to be able to influence them so much as young horses (we are very hands on) and give them a super start to life.

If we did have to sell them as foals, alot depends on the quality of the foal, the breeding of the foal ect. Some of the semen we have used has cost 4k, then a round or two at the vets with frozen semen, basic care of mare from pregnancy until weaning, we could easily have 7 or 8 k into the foal. Now, if the foal is more or less average or not of highly marketable lines/color ect then we would maybe be lucky to get 8 k?? Just depends on the foal I think, but then if the mare was always producing average, we probably wouldn't breed her.

Honestly, if we had to sell ours all as foals, I probably wouldn't breed.

[GracefulHano]

I guess I am considered a 'backyard breeder'. I really only have 1-2 foals per year, if that.

I suppose I determine the 'value' of a foal based on the stud fee. That being said, even breeding to a 'free' stallion, I cannot see how $500 would cover my cost :eek: On the flip side, if you just turn all your mares out with your stallion and just let them do their thing, you could probably justify it.

[Equilibrium]

Shocking all togther isn't it! $500 and she's happy.

Funny enough you should have seen the sales results from Goresbridge last week. Talk about kick in the arse. 3yo's and one made 200 euros. And a few in the 500 - 1000 range. Most had the breeding down so they were registered too.

I'm more than happy to get mine going under saddle and doing a little something before selling. We haven't had to take a loss yet, but I can't predict the future. We should be fine as long as we have what people want.

I will say one thing some of the stories I've heard through the grapevine this year make me shudder. And this would be straight from SO's mouths. And I've heard it too many times to think it's just a bunch of lies. This is with TB's, but at the end of the day if someone takes a 3yo to the sale and gets 200 euros, I'm sure it could possibly happening elsewhere.

Terri

[kookicat]

Shocking all togther isn't it! $500 and she's happy.

Funny enough you should have seen the sales results from Goresbridge last week. Talk about kick in the arse. 3yo's and one made 200 euros. And a few in the 500 - 1000 range. Most had the breeding down so they were registered too.

I'm more than happy to get mine going under saddle and doing a little something before selling. We haven't had to take a loss yet, but I can't predict the future. We should be fine as long as we have what people want.

I will say one thing some of the stories I've heard through the grapevine this year make me shudder. And this would be straight from SO's mouths. And I've heard it too many times to think it's just a bunch of lies. This is with TB's, but at the end of the day if someone takes a 3yo to the sale and gets 200 euros, I'm sure it could possibly happening elsewhere.

Terri

Wow, that is really bad. :no: Did it only have three legs (or two heads)?

[Equilibrium]

Wow, that is really bad. :no: Did it only have three legs (or two heads)?

Not a clue! I can't take Mr. Equilibrium to places like that. We end up with too many horses. Even worse are the local horse sales and ads for orphan foals for sale. I try and keep him away from our version of the Craigslist ads.

Terri

[LaurieB]

We breed for the TB racehorse market and rule of thumb there says that break even for a breeder is 2 and 1/2 times stud fee which generally--even with the varying cost of stud fees--seems to work out pretty accurately. This assumes that offspring are sold as yearlings.

That said, obviously every foal isn't created equal. What you hope for...what we hope for...is that the very good ones bring enough money to allow for either selling a few at a loss or else racing them ourselves.

As to the original question, what price do I have to get to justify keeping a mare in my broodmare band, I think the answer depends less on what a particular foal might sell for than how much I believe in the mare herself. There are many things that the current TB market sees as negatives--small size, for example--that really have no bearing on how well a horse will eventually perform in the track.

Answer for us--price heavily skewed by the cost of TB stud fees and the fact that we board our mares and foals out--60 to 75K.

[bloomingtonfarm]

$3,500 to bring a foal to 6 months? Could you break it down for me as I am so far from this. Where should I cut:

Farier: 8 times a year for the mare and every month up to six month for the foal 14 X $35= $490

Hay: even you produce it you have to take the value of the hay. You could sell it otherwise: 3/4 of a bail per day per horse ( I give more but this is my lost) at $3.50 per bale X 274 = $959.00

Dewormer: 17$ 6 time a year for the mare plus the foal every month for 6 months= $290

Vaccine: 80$ for the mare ( I quit giving the rhino shot) and $80 for the foal = $160.00

Grain: Depends on the mare some 5 pounds per day plus one pound of Flax when they have the foals, some 9 pounds. Let's go to the minimum only 5 pounds at $20.50 a bag for 6 month and 3 pounds for the other 6 months average 4 pounds = $544.00

Average of one pound a day of mineral for the foal up to weaning time: $109.00

Stud fee: at least $1,500 ( I usualy pay more but I would say this is the average for a LFG)

Transportation for the semen: $250

Insemination fee at the clinic: $600.

Transportation of the mare to the clinic. I will leave it open.

Vet check at 14 days: $60.
Vet check at 30 days: $60


IGg test with the vet: $60.

Grand total of : $5,000.

But of course, it cost me much more than that... I did not count the straw, immunal or other product, the registration of the foal and extra vet that is always there.

And where is the cost of the mare in this. If you have mare that you paid few thousand for it , well, you may not consider the cost as important but if you have a very well bred sound mare with good mare line , you had to pay a good price for her and it should also be considered.

[MagicRoseFarm]

How I compute is ,, if the mare has 8 foals in her career( conservative number) she needs to generate a MINIMUM of 100K gross income from those foals for me to break even on her lifetime.

From that gross income comes her very basic living costs ( aprox 30 K over 10 years) and the costs for producing each of 32k at the very minimal average of 4k per foal (of 8 foals)) then add 3 k per year for the years ( over 6 months) I have to keep those foals.. if I have to keep those 8 foals 13 years total... I broke even on the whole picture at 100K