The Flat Market Playbook: What Equine and Livestock Nutrition Brands Should Take from Alltech's 2026 Feed Report

Every year, Alltech's Agri-Food Outlook drops like a barometer reading for the global animal nutrition industry. And the 2026 edition, drawing on data from 142 countries and 38,837 feed mills, delivers a clear verdict: The era of predictable, linear growth is ending. My colleague Jordan Tyler recently broke down what this report means for the pet food industry. If you haven't read her piece, it's worth your time.

This article takes a different lens. We look at what the same data signals for brands operating in the equine, cattle, and broader livestock nutrition space, where the dynamics are meaningfully different and, in some ways, more urgent.

The headline number is encouraging at first glance. Global feed production reached 1.44 billion metric tons in 2025, a 2.9% year-over-year (YoY) increase. But the nuance beneath that number is where the real story lives and where the opportunity for equine and livestock brands becomes unmistakable. Here's what the data is actually telling us, and what it means if you're building or growing a product in the equine, cattle, or broader livestock nutrition space.

North America’s Feed Contraction Is a Market Signal, Not a Market Threat

While most regions posted growth, North America was the notable exception, with feed tonnage declining 0.7% YoY to 288.6 million metric tons. The cattle herd has now contracted for a sixth consecutive year. Beef feed tonnage dropped 1.4% YoY. The equine sector slipped 0.9% YoY in the region.

These numbers can feel discouraging. But for specialty livestock nutrition brands, the story is fundamentally different from that for commodity feed manufacturers.

When herd sizes shrink and input volumes contract, the economics of production shift. Producers who remain in the game are no longer competing on volume. They're competing on performance. Feed efficiency, animal health outcomes, and productivity per head become the metrics that matter. That's precisely the terrain where high-quality nutritional supplements, functional additives, and precision formulation earn their place.

Disease Pressure Is Reshaping How Producers Think About Inputs

The 2026 outlook is unusually direct on disease: Major animal disease outbreaks are no longer isolated or temporary disruptions. They are endemic. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) swept through multiple continents. African swine fever (ASF) continued to gain a foothold in Europe and Asia. The New World screwworm outbreak in the U.S.-Mexico corridor halted live cattle trade and sent shockwaves through the North American cattle cycle.

The response the industry is beginning to adopt is telling. Governments and producers alike are pivoting toward what the report calls 'trade resilience:' zone-based agreements, enhanced biosecurity infrastructure, and hyper-localized containment protocols. The goal is to stay operational even when disease is present.

For specialty livestock nutrition brands, this shift is significant. Biosecurity used to be thought of as a facilities and protocol issue. Increasingly, it's becoming a nutrition and formulation issue as well. Products that support immune function, gut integrity, and stress resilience (and that carry claims substantiation to back up those benefits!) are positioned to become a more consistent part of producers' procurement decisions rather than a discretionary add-on.

The Alltech data also shows that 12% of survey participants cited disease management as one of their top challenges, making it the third most cited concern globally. That number will only increase as endemic disease becomes a baseline operating condition rather than an exceptional one.

Economic Pressure Is Driving a ‘Prove It’ Purchasing Culture

The single largest challenge identified by 29% of participants was production costs, including raw materials, labor, and energy. Compressed margins were flagged as a major stressor across North America and Europe, and the report explicitly states that this volatility is expected to become the new normal.

For specialty nutrition brands, this means the days of selling on story alone are nearly over. Producers navigating tight margins are not eliminating nutritional supplements from their programs, but they are scrutinizing them more carefully. The question on every buyer's desk right now is: Can you show me the return?

This is as much a product positioning challenge as it is a sales challenge. Brands that have invested in feeding trial data, claims substantiation, and veterinary validation are entering procurement conversations with a measurable advantage. Those that haven't are competing on price, and in a compressed-margin environment, that's a race to the bottom.

Additionally, 25% of Alltech's respondents predicted that product prices, inflation, and the economy will be the biggest disruptors to the industry in 2026. Brands that can demonstrate efficiency gains, cost-per-outcome savings, or measurable health outcomes will be better insulated from procurement pressure than brands selling undifferentiated products.

The Equine Sector: Flat Is Not Finished

The equine segment is a case study in category resilience. Globally, equine feed tonnage posted only a 0.2% YoY increase in 2025. North America, the world's largest equine feed market by a wide margin at 5.3 million metric tons, dipped 0.9% YoY. 74% of Alltech's survey respondents reported feeling neutral about the equine sector's growth prospects.

But flat volume doesn't mean flat opportunity, particularly in supplements and specialty nutrition, where premium pricing and performance claims insulate brands from commodity-level pressures. The equine market's core buyers are among the most engaged, brand-loyal, and research-oriented consumers in animal nutrition. They are not buying on price. They're buying on outcomes.

What this sector needs, and what the data implicitly points toward, is better product differentiation, claims substantiation, and regulatory infrastructure. The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) Quality Seal, for example, remains one of the most meaningful trust signals available to equine supplement brands. Brands that treat quality and compliance as a competitive asset rather than a compliance burden are the ones gaining shelf space and loyalty in a flat market.

Sustainability and Regulatory Pressure: A Coming Inflection Point

The Alltech report describes 2026 as the tipping point when sustainability transitions from a voluntary endeavor to a mandatory legal requirement for many companies. The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is already driving emissions disclosure requirements across entire supply chains. Brazil and Mexico are moving in a similar direction.

For equine and livestock brands, this creates an emerging due diligence burden that many are not yet prepared for. If your brand sells into retail, e-commerce, or commercial channels that reach European or Latin American markets, or if you supply ingredients to brands that do, the traceability and sustainability documentation requirements upstream of your product will intensify.

More immediately, domestic regulatory complexity around structure/function claims, AAFCO compliance, and state feed registration remains a daily operational challenge for brands at every stage of growth. As margins tighten and scrutiny increases, the cost of getting this wrong through an enforcement action, a label dispute, or a recall rises in proportion.

What This Means for Your Brand in 2026

Reading between the lines of the Alltech data, the prescription for equine and livestock brands in 2026 is reasonably clear:

• Producers operating under margin pressure will demand evidence of efficacy. Feeding trial data, veterinary validation, and third-party testing are no longer differentiators. They're table stakes for serious commercial conversations. Invest in substantiation now.
• In a compressed-margin environment, functional products with clear mechanisms and demonstrated outcomes are more defensible than undifferentiated supplements. Species-specific formulation and life-stage targeting are increasingly standard expectations rather than premium add-ons. Build formulations that earn their place.
• Whether it's Scope 3 emissions tracking, enhanced traceability requirements, or evolving state feed regulations, the compliance burden is increasing. Brands that build the systems now will have a structural advantage over those that react. Prepare for the regulatory environment ahead.

BSM Partners Works Where the Industry Is Headed

At BSM Partners, we work with equine and livestock nutrition brands at every stage, from early-stage formulation through commercial scale, regulatory build-out, and claims substantiation. Our team includes veterinarians, nutritionists, regulatory specialists, and food safety experts who understand the specific demands of these unique nutrition categories.

If the Alltech data is prompting questions about where your brand stands, whether that’s on formulation, on compliance infrastructure, on claims defensibility, or on your positioning for the market ahead, we'd welcome the conversation.

Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates on all things happening here at BSM Partners.

About the Author

Neeley Bowden Lewis is a Manager of Special Services on the BSM Partners Product Innovation team. She earned her bachelor's degree in pet food production and her master's in food science. In her early career, she worked in product innovation of pet food ingredients, focusing on the development of palatability enhancers. Bowden Lewis calls Arizona home, along with her faithful canine, Allie.