Companies
My database of horse feeds contains products from fourteen feed manufacturers. The companies, and their respective website and headquarter locations are below:
ADM Animal Nutrition; www.admanimalnutrition.com; Quincy & Decatur, IL
Blue Seal; www.blueseal.com; Mucatin, IA
Bluebonnet Feeds; www.bluebonnetfeeds.com; Ardmore, OK
Buckeye Nutrition; www.buckeyenutrition.com; Dalton, OH
Cavalor; www.cavalor.com; Dalton, GA
MannaPro; www.mannapro.com; Chesterfield, MO
Mountain Sunrise Feed. Co.; www.mountainsunrise.com; Beryl, UT
Nutrena Animal Feeds; www.nutrenaworld.com; Minneapolis, MN
Progressive Nutrition; www.prognutrition.com; Hopkin, MN
Purina Animal Nutrition; www.purinamills.com; Arden Hills, MN
Ranch Way Feeds; www.ranch-way.com; Ft. Collins, CO
Seminole Feeds; www.seminolefeed.com; Ocala, FL
Tribute Equine Nutrition; www.tributeequinenutrition.com; Upper Sandusky, OH
Triple Crown Feeds; www.triplecrownfeed.com; Wayzata, MN
Company Ownership
When I first started looking at the companies behind the products that I was imputing into my database, I found it interesting that some were owned by much larger companies. Three parent companies stood out to me; Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill and Land O’Lakes
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill
While taking an on-line nutrition class on food safety and security, I learned of the “ABCD” companies, which were four companies that controlled the global grain trade. ADM and Cargill are the “A” and “C” in the “ABCD.” Bunge and Louis Dreyfus make up the “B” and “D,” respectively. ADM obviously owns ADM Animal Nutrition. It reported, on its website (www.adm.com), 2016 net sales of $62.3 billion and 31,000 employees in 170 countries.
Of the fourteen manufacturers in my database, Cargill owns two; Nutrena Animal Feeds and Progressive Nutrition. Cargill is a privately-owned company that reported $114.7 billion net sales in its 2018 Annual Report with 155,000 employees in 70 countries (www.cargill.com).
These parent companies are sizable entities with a global reach, and deal in food products (grains, oil seeds) that, in their processing, provide by-products that are used as ingredients in horse feeds.
Land O’Lakes
Land O’Lakes (www.landolakesinc.com) is a co-op that reported 2017 net sales of $13.7 billion. In addition to the butter business (Land O' Lakes Dairy Foods), it owns Purina Animal Nutrition and WinField Solutions, an agribusiness consulting company. The really interesting part is the Purina brand. “Purina” also shows up in Nestle and Cargill company information. My understanding is that the animal feed Purina, formerly known as Purina Mills, is owned by Land O’Lakes. The pet food portion, the ‘Purina” brand name and checkerboard square symbol, are owned by Nestle. The Cargill – Purina connection appears to be a marketing consulting service offering for Purina farm animal products that is only available outside of the United States.
Product Offerings
Buckeye Nutrition, Cavalor, Progressive Nutrition, Tribute Equine Nutrition and Triple Crown produce only equine feeds. The other nine companies, in my database, produce feeds for multiple species. The other species may include pets, livestock (e.g. cattle, sheep, swine), game (e.g. deer), exotics (e.g. lama, alpaca), poultry and aquaculture.
Horse Feeds
From what I have seen in terms or products and ingredients, the equine feed industry occupies a product space somewhere between livestock and pet, with some affinity toward the pet food space. Perhaps this mimics the shift in the role of horses from a utilitarian farm/ranch role to a recreational, almost pet role.
Livestock feeds are formulated to maximize the conversion of feed to flesh; performance measured in physical growth and a minimization of mortality in the growing livestock. The focus in pet foods seems geared toward pet health, longevity and wellbeing. Consumer perceptions and nutritional preferences seem to drive the pet food product offerings. Non-GMO ingredients, probiotics, prebiotics, and superfoods ingredients mimic what consumers are themselves wanting in their diets. Perhaps the most telling example of this is the company V-dog (www.v-dog.com) which manufactures and markets a line of vegan pet foods, for vegan consumers that want their pets to be vegan as well.
Commercial horse feed seems to borrow from both worlds. With forages and roughages as a foundation, cereal grain products and oil seed products are added to supplement energy needs. But then ingredients, that have scant or questionable scientific basis for efficacy, are added and presented in a manner similar to how those ingredients are marketed in human foods. Pro- and Pre-biotics are presented for, “gut health.” Joint “supplement” ingredients like glucosamine and MSM are presented as promoting, “joint health.” Granted there must be some careful wording to present these ingredients as, “supplements,” and not substances that cure, prevent or treat maladies (drugs) which necessitate lengthy and expensive trials to prove such curative effects to the FDA. However, such wording appeals to consumers who may use the same substances in their own diet to promote gut and joint health.
Humans are extremely good at seeing patterns, so good in fact that we can see patterns where there really aren’t any. Hence the need for carefully designed and executed studies to prevent biases and expose true patterns and cause-and-effect relationships.
All fourteen of the companies in my database are, “for-profit.” If there is consumer demand for certain types of ingredients, then products will appear to meet that demand of consumer preferences. Unlike the livestock industry where growth and mortality rates can be objectively used to gauge the effectiveness of feeds.