NEWS
Constructive management from a crisis
Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2001
Problems such as Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome must be met with a vision to help breeders in the future
Any breeder who has been in the horse business long enough has been affected by situations labeled as a crisis. In fact, this is what horsemen address when we design our management programs. We want to avoid a crisis, obviously, but short of that, we need to establish management systems that entail emergency preparedness. This is good management.
Historically, breeders have endured many critical situations and, as a consequence of these crises, solutions to problems and benefits as a result of these problems have been realized. Such crises include equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), contagious equine metritis (CEM), and equine viral arteritis (EVA). In the case of virus abortion, a vaccine was developed and there have since been relatively few significant occurrences. With CEM, management and monitoring have contained this infectious situation and no new occurrences have been reported to date. With EVA, a vaccine was developed and monitoring continues. No new occurrences have been reported in Thoroughbreds.
Influenza, strangles, and equine protozoal myeloencephalitis are other examples of crises for which management situations have been developed. In each situation we responded to the crisis, found answers, and developed strategies to manage and monitor the problem.
The foresight (good management, if you will) of Max Gluck and other influential people in the horse community led to the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center. Good research has consistently come out of this center. The industry is fortunate to have this center and all the help it has provided over the years. This was emergency preparedness and good management at its best.
Our current crisis, Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), is being well managed by the staff and facilities of the Gluck Center. Information is shared while it is continually being gathered. The horse community has come together to combat this problem.
Veterinarians, farm managers, owners, consultants, suppliers to the breeders, everyone is trying to help. Out of this climate, we will find answers to this crisis that we as horsemen will apply to our individual management programs.
Perhaps we can say that it is human nature that prompts us to develop policy in response to a crisis. Regardless of the factors causing the current crisis of MRLS, this crisis is no different than many of the previous ones we have encountered, although there are indications that MRLS may be more extensive, more widespread, and potentially more devastating to breeders than anything ever encountered before.
We still do not know the full extent of the economic impact to breeders. Virtually no breeder has gone unscathed, with some losing upwards of 50% of their 2001 foal crop and others losing that amount of their 2002 foal crop.
Breeders have long understood and worked around the amount of capital it has taken to be a breeder. We need our banks and we need our insurance. At present, we either cannot obtain or do not have insurance on our bloodstock, and this will further constrict capital to many breeders.
Horse breeders do not qualify for government agricultural assistance. Representatives of our industry recently talked to Congress about some aid or support, but the prospects of federal assistance appear slim. Even if we did receive some temporary assistance in response to the current crisis, are we so short-sighted to think we won't have another critical situation appear sometime again in the future?
We are farmers, subject to natural phenomena as well as changes in environmental, social, political, and economic conditions. So, in response to this crisis, let's ask ourselves, What can we do to help ourselves for the next crisis? How many more crises do we have to endure? How many more can some breeders endure?
We have lost inventory and product. We can't bring back this lost income, but we can create additional income opportunity. This is what we, as breeders, would appreciate: not handouts, but opportunity. Let's look at ways to add value to our product. Let's look at ways to develop the Kentucky breeding program. Let's look at ways to develop a direct economic shot in the arm for breeders.
We really are good managers, and, like the facilities that have been on ready alert at the Gluck Center, we already have industry organizations that could develop and manage a program of emergency preparedness for the future. Let's call on these organizations to develop a strategic economic policy that is in direct proportion to the economic impact our industry has on the commonwealth.
Maybe by doing this, some good may come out of our current crisis.
Stephen E. Johnson is president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club and manager of Margaux Farm.
