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Urine Business Booming For Some Horse Breeders
Horse breeders have seen their income sky-rocket in recent years thanks to a hot new market for an unusual product - pregnant mare urine, or PMU.
Estrogen is extracted from the urine to treat older women for osteoporosis, heart disease, and short-term symptoms of menopause. It's marketed by Ayerst Organics in Br
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Urine Business Booming For Some Horse Breeders LIVESTOCK Horses/Mules 21-4-28 Horse breeders have seen their income sky-rocket in recent years thanks to a hot new market for an unusual product - pregnant mare urine, or PMU.
Estrogen is extracted from the urine to treat older women for osteoporosis, heart disease, and short-term symptoms of menopause. It's marketed by Ayerst Organics in Brandon, Manitoba, under the trade name Premarin, the most frequently prescribed medication in North America. That's a trend that's expected to grow as more and more "Baby Boomers" age.
The PMU industry got its start in the Mid-west in 1942. There are now nearly 500 producers, most of them in Canada and a few in North Dakota, that contract to provide PMU. There are also about 1,200 names on the company's waiting list to become producers.
"The number of producers increased by 40 percent during 1992 alone," says Norm Luba, Executive Director of the Louisville, Ky.,-based North American Equine Ranching In-formation Council (NAERIC). The group was formed two years ago as a clearinghouse for information on the PMU industry.
Mares are fitted with rubber cups that collect urine. Cups are suspended from the ceiling on pulleys and are drained through tubing into a central collection tank, like a bulk milk tank.
The equipment allows the horses to move freely and lie down in their stalls. The horses are typically turned out for a couple hours of exercise every two weeks and they receive water 18 times a day.
Mares average 125 grams of estrogen during the October-March collection period. Ranchers average $16 (Canadian) for each gallon of PMU, from which one teaspoon of estrogen can be processed.
Quarter horses are the most common PMU producers, outnumbering draft horses 2 to 1. Since PMU is a perishable product, ranchers must be within a reasonable transport distance from Ayerst Organic's processing facility, Luba notes, although some of the company's contract ranchers live up to 750 miles away.
"Currently, supply and demand are in balance," he adds.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, NAERIC, P.O. Box 43968, Louisville, Ky. 40253-0968.
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