What does it cost to breed and raise a sales yearling?
Financial Success in Breeding Begins With Finding Your Breakeven Point By Russell Meerdink There is something about horses that make savvy businesspeople forget what they learned in Business 101. The dream of breeding the perfect sales yearling often dulls the sharp business judgment that earned them the money to get into the horse business in the first place. Few breeders calculate in advance what it will cost them to breed and raise a sales yearling. As a result, a large number of the yearlings going through the sales ring – maybe even a majority – are sold at a substantial loss or, at best, at a very modest profit. Yearling Buyers acquire a large percentage of their racing stock at prices below the cost of production. That’s not the way the marketplace is supposed to work. Even when everything goes “right,” it costs a lot more to breed a horse than most breeders realize or are likely to admit. The risks of breeding and selling sales yearlings are so great that most banks won’t finan
