Hanover
Shoe Farms' History on their web site
Hanover Shoe Farms'
facts
Hanover Shoe Farms began @ 1900 as a racing stable
that advertised the Hanover Shoe Company at racetracks.
In 1926 the stable began to breed its own horses.
That is when the first four barns on the main farm were built.
Now the farm is a corporation owned by three families.
They farm about 3,000 acres. Four-fifths of that
is in active pasture, the rest being swampy areas, woodlands,
curtilage (driveways, lawns, etc), a soccer field, and
occasional use for hay crops.
They own a small farm in NJ, where our NJ stallions
are located. The offspring of the New Jersey stallions
are eligible to participate in the New Jersey Sire Stakes
program. Pa has a sire stakes program, & after the
arrival of gaming machines at racetracks in Pa, HSF expects
their sire stakes program to be among the best in North
America.
HSF employs 80 people, many of whom are second,
third, and even fourth generation employees. After a
waiting period, employees are eligible for houses on
the farm rent free.
A foal is born between January and June, is weaned
in November. It grows up with about 20 or 25 others of
the same age.
The foal begins training, and begins racing when
he or she is two years old.
Right now HSF has 1,265 horses, after selling
78 at our first two sales of the year.
This breaks down into 485 broodrnares, 281 yearlings, 344 sucklings,
27 lead ponies, 16 nonbreeding stallions, and 79 retired horses.
When our horses become old or infertile, HSF continues
to take care of them to the end of their lives. Most
of them have produced income for us and helped our business
to continue. In return, we feel we should let them live
out their lives safely and comfortably.
No one has exactly figured how much it costs to
raise a horse. We use a rule of thumb of about $10,000
to get one to the sale.
In recent years, our yearlings have averaged about
$31,000 apiece at the auction sales. We sell all of our
yearlings; we don't keep any to race. This is our main
source of income.
Horse trainers and the racehorse owners they work
for buy our yearlings at the sales, and start training
them to race the following year. A good horse can win
$1 million in a racing season.
But 99% of them win far less than that. Racing
is a sport, not a business, and if you win enough with
your racehorse to pay his bills, you have had a very
good year.
Our 163 buildings include 50 employee houses and
121 barns, sheds, and other outbuildings.
We have 240 miles of fence.
We use 33 trucks, 19 tractors, 7 fifteen-foot
batwing mowers that run 9 hours per day from the beginning
of May through September, and 4 finish mowers and brush
hogs. All equipment is bought and maintained locally.
We use 1,150 tons of hay and 1,200 tons of straw,
all from local farms.
We feed 47,750 bushels of oats and compound feed.
We use 26,000 gallons of heating oil, 9,800 gallons
of diesel and off road fuel, and 34,000 gallons of gasoline.
For fencing we use 3,000 locust fence posts, 5,000
oak fence boards, and 1,200 tons of stone and fill (not
counting electric web fence).
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