By Theresa Hook Barton  

The Challenge
      One division of TNT Forage Inc., Merry Downs Arabians, was a huge cash flow drain. The division served an important purpose, but required significant funds to sustain it. It generated no separate income to defray costs. What could be done to make this division less burdensome upon the company?

Background
      TNT Forage Inc. is a manufacturer of hay-based nutritional products, primarily sold to the equine industry. Our company focus is to provide quality nutrition for the purpose of bettering the lives of animals. Our products are a blend of top-grade alfalfa, orchard grass and/or timothy hay, which we chop and mix with a rich cane molasses blend, with a nutritious hay source that smells like fine tobacco. TNT products, appropriately named "Chops" because of the chopped hay, are spreading like wildfire in the equine world. TNT Forage now offers Alfalfa "Chops," Timothy-Alfalfa "Chops" and Fortified "Chops,” which are made by adding a vitamin and mineral supplement to our base hay/molasses blend. 

      TNT Forage Inc. tests all products on horses at Merry Downs Arabians, prior to their introduction into the marketplace. The horses are monitored for rate of gain (amount of weight gained within a set period of time), digestive issues, preferences in taste and smell of mixtures and overall health of the animals. Particular attention is paid to the effects of different formulas on defined categories of horses, i.e., foals, lactating mares, breeding stallions and senior horses.

      The horses at Merry Downs Arabians also are used for marketing purposes. Horses are shown at a variety of equine events; products are on display wherever the horses are shown, prizes are awarded to other exhibitors in the form of free bags of product, and educational seminars are offered. The horses also travel across the country and act as teaching tools for the general public, resulting in more knowledgeable horse owners who, hopefully, buy TNT Forage products.

      The cost is substantial to maintain Merry Downs Arabians as a lab and training/stabling facility, as well as to care for the horses while they are on the road. However, the benefit to research and development, as well as marketing, is too significant to disband this division.

The Solution
      The horse farm known as Merry Downs Arabians has now been put in a position of generating its own income to defray expenses. Income producing measures include stabling services for other horse owners, training client horses, teaching skills to horse owners, the sale of breedings to a high caliber Arabian Stallion, the sale of foals and the collecting of show fees from clients who choose to attend horse shows under the umbrella of Merry Downs Arabians.

      The division doesn’t yet generate sufficient income to cover all costs; however, the changes made in the handling of operations have significantly reduced the “bloodletting” that the company had been experiencing by maintaining this division. The company has benefited by exploring other income-generating avenues it had not originally anticipated in its start up phase.

Theresa Hook Barton president of TNT Forage Inc., You can reach her at (816) 293-5556 or .