After a long career in the horse feed business, Colin Price knew there was room for innovation and a shake-up of what equestrian horses really want in their feed bins.
Instead of retiring at 65, Colin Price wanted to draw on his experience and give back to the equestrian community a radically different concept of what horses really need to perform at their natural best.
“I thought, do I take out a Jim’s Mowing franchise or do I stick in the business that I know so well and in which I’ve developed so many brilliant relationships? I had some ideas that I wanted to pursue which I couldn’t do previously, so it was an opportunity, really. I didn’t jump into it,” says Colin. “I sounded out the people that I thought would be valuable partners in a new business and they were all very supportive, so that drove my decision.”
With wife Suzie and a small but enthusiastic staff, Benchmark Feeds is quietly making inroads into the market by word of mouth. Benchmark’s belief that feed should deliver fibre fermentation without the traditional starch and sugar loading is aimed at producing a healthier and happier horse. Colin tells us how it all began – and why their paper packaging is also proving a big hit!
EQ LIFE: Why did you create Benchmark Feeds and what gaps in the market does it cover?
COLIN: Our goal was to create a range of equestrian feeds primarily that got rid of the starch and sugar. The Australian horse feed industry, rightly or wrongly, is driven by grain starch. And the biggest ingredient in most feed mills that create equestrian feed is millrun, which is a byproduct of flour milling. It’s 20% starch which makes most feeds quite starchy and it’s a fairly inexpensive material to add.
Generally speaking, the lower cost products have more millrun. They are higher in starch – even though they may be labelled “cool” and put in a blue bag, they still are quite starchy. And to some horses that impacts temperament and behaviour and health because horses are not natural grain starch digesters, they are fibre digesters or fibre fermenters. We wanted to head down that path and worked out a strategy to create a range of feeds that allowed us to do that.
EQ LIFE: Do you feel that that’s what sets Benchmark Feeds apart from other products in the market?
COLIN: Absolutely. I’ve had quite a lot of experience with using highly fermentable fibres – or “super fibres” as they’re generally known – and there’s only a small bunch of those that are used in the horse feed industry. The most successful is probably beet pulp over the years with some great products. And there are others that are based on soy or lupin hulls. These are highly fermentable fibres that digest quickly and efficiently and create more energy per kilo than long-stem fibre.
“We use that fermentable fibre
for the energy source… rather
than relying on grain starch.”
So, very different to hay and pasture and chaff, which are also clearly important to a horse’s digestive system and health. Horses need long-stem fibre for a whole lot of reasons, but the fermentation of that fibre is quite inefficient and they have to eat a lot of it, which is why horses eat 22 hours out of 24. They’ve got to eat a lot of it to get sufficient energy for all bodily functions. It’s a high-volume, low-energy intake and a slow fermentation process. Using a highly fermentable fibre accelerates that natural process and creates more energy per kilo and a lot faster. Basically, the energy from fermentable fibre is the same as grain starch, but it’s obviously fat-based and not glycogen type energy, so it’s a very natural process.
What set us apart was that we took this concept of highly fermentable fibre, which has been used as a topper for a variety of rations, and we’ve bought that ingredient – mainly soy hulls – into being an integral part of every feed that we make. We use that fermentable fibre for the energy source in our extruded feed, for example, rather than relying on grain starch. The energy that is provided is natural fat-based volatile fatty acids rather than short-term, high-starch glycogen type energy.
“We get tremendous
feedback on our feeds…”
EQ LIFE: You’re also focused on pre and probiotics. Why are these so important?
COLIN: Probiotics are critical and gut health is critical to horse health. In a more natural environment horses eat mostly fibre and their guts are normally well balanced because they’re not being disturbed with other ingredients like grain starch. Obviously, there’s other factors involved in health, but as far as gut health goes, normally a high-fibre, low-starch diet will encourage a good, healthy microbiome. So very good health internally.
What we discovered was that when we add high-quality probiotics to a fermentable fibre a couple of things happen. It provides an express delivery service to the hindgut, so it doesn’t destroy or break down the efficacy of the probiotic as you would when you’re adding it with a grain starch-based diet or feed. Putting it with a fermentable fibre enhances the efficacy and the activity of the probiotic, and the results are dramatic. We get tremendous feedback on our feeds where they make a rapid change to coat and condition with horses.
And I really think it’s more the fermentable fibre probiotic effect than the vitamins and minerals which are there because they would take longer to work. Gut health can turn quite quickly when you can build the population of beneficial gut flora. I think this is what has made such a difference in our feeds, it’s that combination of highly fermentable fibre and probiotic, and we’re developing that premise as we go forward.
EQ LIFE: Talking about expanding, what are the next steps in this journey for Benchmark Feeds?
COLIN: Our main area of activity has been the equestrian sector because we find them fabulous to engage with and horse health is paramount to those people; equestrian people love their horses and love what they do and love their sport. We’ve created a range of feeds in that market largely staying away from the commercial end of the horse feed market.
People think horse feed is horse feed, but in fact it’s really segmented. You know, talking to a pony club kid or a pleasure rider or a western pleasure or an event rider, showjumper or dressage person is totally different from one to the other; but when you consider the commercial end of the market, talking to a thoroughbred stud manager, they’re a very different proposition.
So, we’ve stayed away from the commercial end of the market to a degree; our feeds really fit into that equestrian market. But what we offer is just as applicable in those commercial markets as far as the fibre story goes, because we know from history that thoroughbred horses are also prone to gut issues because of their lifestyle, the way they are managed, and their limited access to fibre. There’s a huge amount of ulcer treatment sold for daily treatment in thoroughbred stables in Australia to counter the effects of poor feed management and lack of fibre intake.
We’ve created a product for that market which adds more energy derived from highly fermentable fibre but reduces the overall starch loading of a race ration without changing the race feed that they feed. The race feeds normally would be 20 to 30% starch and they may be feeding 4 to 6 kilos a day, so it’s a huge starch burden. We can provide them with a product that not only adds more energy to the overall ration by stimulating volatile fatty acids, but it reduces the overall starch and sugar level because we’re offering 1% starch and not 20 to 30%. So, doing the math, you can actually pull back the starch loading but increase the energy – and also deliver fabulous probiotics to the hindgut with the fibre, which will help the ulcer situation as well and certainly alleviate a lot of those issues. It’s a natural progression for us to make that type of product available into that market.
EQ LIFE: What are your most popular products?
COLIN: Our flagship product is Perfect Mash. It is based on highly fermentable fibres – there’s no grain in it, it’s 1% starch and less than 5% sugar. It’s what we call a complete feed – it provides a great majority of the nutrients required to make a complete balanced ration. So we call it a complete feed in that context; it contains vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, pre and probiotics and antioxidants. We’ve found Perfect suits probably 60 or 70% of the equestrian horse market because the energy you get from it not only helps with conditioning, it helps support workload.
It’s very good for horses with any metabolic issues – and a lot have, you know, a pony that’s prone to laminitis, for example, you want to keep away from starch and sugar. This is the perfect solution to that. Old horses with dental issues that can’t chew hard feed, it’s perfect for that. There’s a wide range of horses that suit this product.
It’s really taken off and become incredibly popular and it’s been word of mouth that’s created that. We’re a mum and dad business. We’ve been three years building our story and getting our message around the country, and it’s mostly been social media that’s done that. We have a fabulous Benchmark Horse Community Facebook page, which allows people to share their stories and put up photos and ask questions. It is very rewarding to have people asking questions about ‘what should I do’ and other Benchmark users coming in to say, ‘this is my experience’ and ‘this is what I’ve done and here’s a photo of my horse’… and the response, ‘that’s amazing!’
Because we’re a small family business, we allow a transparent discussion and an open discussion around our product. Whereas if I were in a corporate environment, your legal team wouldn’t allow you to do that because they need to control the messaging. But we’re very open and transparent with our products and our discussion and it’s incredibly rewarding to have that.
EQ LIFE: How do people find out about Benchmark Feeds if it’s not in their feed store?
COLIN: We have a huge distribution network around Australia. On our website – which is benchmarkfeeds.com.au – we have a stockist directory and all you need to do is pop onto Our Stockists Australia or New Zealand and enter your postcode and it will bring up the stockist nearest you. If they haven’t got the product you want in stock, we’re in nine distribution centres around the country and it’s very easily accessed.
EQ LIFE: Another innovation has been how your feed is packaged, could you explain this further?
COLIN: Absolutely. It’s fantastic to be starting from scratch and do the things that you could never do previously because you were locked into a different path. We looked at all aspects of our business and we decided to go with paper packaging – which is actually compostable material, not just recyclable – because as a horse owner and a horse feeder for many years – and people reading this will realise that when they tip their bag of feed into their feed bin they end up with this poly bag, this nice shiny bag, they know that it can’t be recycled, it has to go to landfill. So you think, ‘what do I do?’
Some people fill it with horse poo and put it out the gate, but at some point that bag still has to go to landfill. You have a poly weave-based material laminated over the top – there’s two different types of materials together that prevents it from being recycled. It looks fantastic and shiny, but it can’t be recycled currently.
So we decided early on to go with paper. It’s more expensive but it really sets us apart in the industry. I think we’re the only range of horse feeds with multiple products that are in paper. People love it. We get emails back from customers thanking us for choosing paper. People often comment, ‘I buy your bags because they’re in paper bags!’ It’s a big deal for a lot of people because we all know what it feels like when you tip that poly bag of feed into the bin. It’s got to go into the rubbish for the landfill. Our paper bags can go in the recycling bin or the compost bin.
EQ LIFE: I’m being cheeky, but is it still easy to open because I find feed bags the hardest things to open!?
COLIN: Of course. You just snip it with your scissors and rip it. It just opens. If you can’t undo the stitching, you just get your knife and snip the end and rip it off. It’s a piece of cake!
EQ LIFE: Was launching in Covid very challenging?
COLIN: Yes, it was, but it gave us time to get on our feet as well. It wasn’t all bad. We were getting production in place and making sure that our feeds were performing. That’s the way we wanted it to be, we didn’t want to push the accelerator down too hard. It’s been organic growth and by word of mouth that have seen us where we are now. It was a positive for us in some ways.
EQ LIFE: What an incredible journey you’re having! What are some of the things that you’ve enjoyed about creating Benchmark Feeds?
COLIN: We’re a very old-fashioned business. We have a bunch of wonderful people around us. It’s like a family affair really. My wife Suzie and I, we own the business and created the business, and we brought these people in. We have about eight people in Australia, ladies around Australia, who represent us in the various states, and we have a couple in New Zealand who do the same.
Unlike corporate industry, we’re not driven by numbers, we’re driven by relationships. We always take the long, slow trip; we don’t strive to exceed targets, we don’t set monthly targets and budgets on sales. We obviously do our forward planning, but that doesn’t filter through to driving more sales. I often tell my crew they are not salespeople, they’re relationship builders, and if they feel as though they’re turning into a salesperson they need to step back a bit. They don’t need to sell our products, they just need to introduce them. It’s a bit of a luxury that we can do that. As I said, we’re not driving to take over the world. We’re just introducing our feed to the market and enjoying the ride that it’s creating, and so are the people that are in our business. It’s just delightful, really. EQ
This article was written in conjunction with Benchmark Feeds.
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