Rome 2 - Stables / Camps / Auxiliaries

Considering the balance needed for food/wealth/squalor when your empire expands, are Stables / Auxiliary Camps worth it?

Particularly with the Eastern factions, like Parthia and the Seleucids, you can train the best cavalry only with specialised Stables. But they consume a lot of food if you fully upgrade them, so I'm wondering whether it works to use some food to have the top cavalry units.

On the other hand, you have the Auxilia camps for the Romans.

Thoughts?

Sooo... any tips? Are they worth the trade-off?

For the Eastern factions, the mercenaries make up for the lack of dedicated stables - but they need proper maintenance and in the beginning of the campaign local cavalry might be better to use.