Overview
- Understanding adoption barriers: The project will identify what helps or hinders the uptake of new research and best-practice standards in the Thoroughbred industry.
- Turning research into action: Insights from breeders, trainers and farm managers will help develop practical strategies that improve adoption of evidence-based practices.
- Delivering greater industry impact: By making research easier to implement, the project aims to improve productivity, profitability, welfare and reproductive outcomes across the industry.
There are big strides being made in research within the Thoroughbred world all of the time, but how can we ensure that the new best practice standards identified in the literature are adopted by the industry? That is a question that the AgriFutures Thoroughbred Horses Program and applied behavioural science company Evidn are seeking to answer together in their new project, launched earlier this year.
Evidn senior behavioural scientist and project lead Sam Moore is focused on helping agricultural industries implement evidence-based practices, and part of that process is discovering what might be limiting uptake of those practices.
"We at Evidn are behavioural scientists who work with agricultural industries and regional communities that are going through various kinds of change or transition, and what we do is devise ways to support adoption of new best practices and technologies," said Moore.
"What we are most interested in is identifying the barriers to adoption. Most of the groups we work with are very resourceful, they follow the science and put things into practice, but there are often still gaps in uptake.
"Much of our work is identifying what these barriers are, why is everyone not implementing a technique or practice, and what we can do to shift the dial in favour of that change."
By better understanding those barriers, the project can identify how best to deliver that knowledge to the industry and ensure it becomes part of every day practice.
One of Evidn's largest projects to date was within the sugarcane industry, where the company was engaged by the Queensland Government and Great Barrier Reef Foundation to help understand what factors affected participation in Smartcane BMP, the industry's best management practice program. Strategies developed from Evidn's analysis have contributed to a 509% increase in adoption of Smartcane.
Evidn has also worked with AgriFutures Australia within the chicken meat industry, helping to identify better strategies to support animal welfare and biosecurity practices. Evidn's analysis highlighted the importance of building positive engagement skills across different groups in the industry, including on farm – an area that stands out as important in the Thoroughbred world as well.
"A key trend we see across a lot of our work is that many of the biggest opportunities and challenges facing industries often have some component that relates to people and our attitudes and behaviours," Moore said. "Our day-to-day decisions – where we get information, how it's shared, and when – play a big role in whether people engage with programs and adopt new practices."
Evolving best practices
Most farms and trainers understand the importance of keeping up with current industry research, whether it's coming from their veterinarian or from a Research and Development Corporation like AgriFutures. With the breeding season right around the corner, best practices around reproduction will be front of mind.
"We initially kept a pretty broad approach to the project intentionally, but the hot button topics we have identified to focus on at the moment are around improving fertility," Moore said. "That covers everything from conception rates and reproductive scanning, to foetal loss throughout pregnancy and accessing post mortems."
Within the last year, AgriFutures has carried out projects looking at high interest topics such as maximising mare fertility, understanding foetal loss, factors affecting stallion fertility, and embryo fatal genes variants.
Read about minimising pregnancy loss
Read about the trial to see if niacin can improve fertility
Read about an embryo lethal genetic variant
"There is a lot of psychology involved in the costs involved in reproduction, especially things like post mortems that can cost a bit upfront but might help you identify issues in the long term," said Moore. Cost is one of the most pressing barriers to implementation that Moore has already identified.
According to Measurement of economic impact of the Australian thoroughbred breeding industry published by AgriFutures in 2025, the Thoroughbred breeding industry contributes nearly $1.68 billion to Australia's economy annually, with over 33,000 individuals actively engaged with the breeding industry in some form. Of that annual figure, $781.63 million was spent directly on caring for breeding stock and producing foals, excluding service fees.
The national foal crop has shrunk by 40% within the last two decades, and its continual shrinkage is a problem already identified by several bodies as needing to be urgently addressed. Cost of services continues to play a large role in the equation.
By implementing the latest research, breeders can potentially lower their production costs and increase their chances of successfully producing a healthy foal. But how best to get that information across to the industry? That is a key component of Moore's project plan.
Working with the industry
Evidn answered an open call for AgriFutures' research program, and Moore is looking forward to working in the Thoroughbred world.
"We work across a lot of different agricultural sectors, including grazing, sugarcane, biosecurity, and the Thoroughbred industry is a fascinating industry to be a part of," he said. "The first stage of the project will look at analysing industry reception to research and what we can do to get better engagement, and then based on the outcome of that stage, we will be looking to create systems to embed in the industry to improve engagement.
"At that stage, we will be looking to work one-on-one with people like breeders, trainers, and farm managers to implement what we have learned."
The first stage, where Moore and his team will consult with the industry, will run into early 2027. Once they analyse their findings, they will come back to the industry with the methods they believe will best help reduce barriers to adopting strategies.
By using methods rooted in behavioural skills training, they aim to help farms, training organisations, and everyone in between make implementation as easy as possible – and easy to keep doing.
"In a third stage, we will work out how best to package that into a toolkit that the industry can refer back to," Moore said. One of Moore's mottos is "design for the day after training"; the aim for the eventual toolkit is so organisations can ensure the whole team maintains the set standard.
"That part of the project will run into early 2028. We are really looking forward to meeting participants of all levels of the industry and having genuine conversations about how people operate."
The Hunter Valley is top of Moore's agenda within the coming weeks, and he encourages anyone in the area who wants to talk to him to reach out.
