A state-level study of Kentucky’s equine industry: the 2012 Kentucky Equine Survey

Abstract

s / Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 33 (2013) 321-399 365 [5] Seyedabadi HR, Banabazi MH, Afraz F, Asadzadeh N, Javanmard A, Aliabad AJ. J Anim Vet Adv 2011;10(7):865-7. [6] Shin EK, Perryman LE, Meek K. J Immunol 1997;158(8):3565-9. [7] Terry RR, Gholewinski C, Cothran EG. J Appl Genet 1999;40(1):39-41. Production and Management: Oral Presentations A state-level study of Kentucky’s equine industry: the 2012 Kentucky Equine Survey R.J. Coleman , M.G. Rossano , C.J. Stowe , A.E. Jarrett , G. Grulke , L. Brown , and S. Clark 4 1 Department of Animal and Food Sciences, 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546, 3 Kentucky Horse Council, Lexington, KY 40511, USDA-NASS, Louisville, KY, 20102-1120 The 2012 Kentucky Equine Survey was conducted by the Kentucky Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), with direction and assistance from the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture and the Kentucky Horse Council. The objective of the Kentucky Equine Survey was to obtain an estimate of the inventory of all breeds of equine (horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules) as well as estimates of equine-related assets, sales and income, and expenditures. To develop a data base of names and addresses, the research team from UK contacted numerous breed and activity associations for their support and their mailing lists. In addition, a series of 34 public engagement meetings and extension programs were conducted across the state to reach horse owners who may not belong to a previously identified organization. These names were added to an existing data base of agricultural operations with equine maintained by NASS, resulting in a data base with over 31,000 names. This list frame was augmented by area frames, both in areas known to have agriculture and in additional areas considered Agri-urban fringe, where horse operations are frequently located but missed by traditional agricultural sampling approaches. From this data base a sample of 15,000 equine operations stratified by operation size and geographic location, received questionnaires. Data were collected June – October 2012. Non responders were contacted by telephone enumerators or by field enumerators in area segments being extensively sampled. The overall response rate was 71.4%.State-level estimates suggest that there are 242,400 horses in Kentucky, residing on 35,000 equine operations. The most prevalent breed was the Thoroughbred (54,000), followed by Quarter Horses (42,000), Tennessee Walking Horses (36,000) American Saddlebred Horses (14,000), and donkeys and mules (14,000). The total value of Kentucky’s equine and equine-related assets was $23.4 billion. The total of all equine sales and income from services provided for equine operations in 2011 was about $1.1 billion, and total equine-related expenditures by equine operations in 2011 were about $1.2 billion. Funding for the project was provided by the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund, the University of Kentucky College Of Agriculture, the Kentucky Horse Council and numerous industry organizations and horse owners. Daily horse behavior patterns depend on management S.S. King, K.L. Jones, M. Schwarm, and E.L. Oberhaus Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL As human populations increasingly divorce from their agrarian roots, their intimate connection with the essential nature of the horse is being lost. Confined human lifestyles translate into increased confinement management of horses. We hypothesized that natural behavior patterns are altered as horses spend increasing amounts of time in confinement. This study compared 24-hour behavior patterns of horses between several confined states and unconfined pasture. A 24-hour time budget was constructed for 35 different horses observed for 24 consecutive hours. Horses were managed under zero confinement (24P), daytime confinement/night turnout (12CD), daytime turnout/night confinement (12CN), or 24h/day confinement (24C). The 24P group was considered the “control”. All horses had ad libitum access to roughage. Behavioral observations were made 10 times/h for 24h. Each 24h period was divided into 3h segments for analysis of time/treatment interactions. The 93 possible behaviors were ultimately grouped into 5 categories representing >91% of all behaviors (ingestion, movement, inactivity, socialization, investigative) for statistical evaluation. Percent time spent in each behavior was compared by confinement type and time of day using multiple ANOVA. The 24P time budget consisted of 44.9% ingestion, 24.2% movement, 21% inactivity, 3.4% socializing and 3.0 investigative. By comparison, the most frequent behavior of the 24C groups was inactivity (42.2%); ingestion (30.9%) and movement (11.3%) were all changed (P 0.05) in ingestion frequency between time periods. The highest frequency of ingestion occurred during 06:00-21:00h and was lowest at 03:0006:00h in 24C horses. Ingestion was highly influenced by time of pasture access in partially confined horses; lowest ingestion was 18:00-06:00h in 12CN and 06:00-18:00h in 12CD. The greatest compensatory ingestion occurred in