Month: October 2017

Reproductive Success

Reproduction is the most influential factor on beef cattle profitability. Since reproduction is a lowly heritable trait, environment plays a huge role. Environmental factors that have been proven to increase conception are: energy consumption and body condition score, protein consumption (both as a protein requirement and as improving energy status via rumen fermentation), mineral  and trace mineral status, and body temperature (fever has been shown to increase embryonic fatality).

Most cow-calf producers sell calves at or shortly after weaning. This management system places emphasis not only on the number of calves born and raised to weaning age, but also the weight of the weaned calves. Calf nutrition is a major influence on weaning weight. Dam milk production, calf health and forage consumption are that major sources of nutrients for calves.  Calves have nearly twice the protein requirement as their parents on a percent of diet basis. This requirement along with energy greatly influence the selling weight of calves.

Amaferm®, a natural prebiotic obtained from the proprietary fermentation of Aspergillus oryzae, has been shown to have positive effects on intake, digestibility and nutrient absorption. Amaferm’s mode of action has been shown to increase the feed particle attachment sites for rumen bacteria, enhance the growth of rumen fungi and bacteria, to increase the digestibility of a wide variety feedstuffs into energy and microbial proteins along with increasing nutrient absorption. In addition, documentation indicates that Amaferm reduces rectal temperature of cows during the hottest months of the year that coincide with normal breeding months of spring-calving cows.

Testimonials from cow-calf producers indicate high conception rates and earlier breed-up dates when cowherds are maintained on VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® containing Amaferm, high levels of organic trace minerals, and adequate phosphorus. Despite the amazing number of testimonials, data to support their anecdotal responses has not been collected.

This summer we conducted a Reproductive Success data benchmark study. The project was directed by Dr. Twig Marston with the help of summer research intern Mason DeVooght. They collected reproductive and weaning weight data from customers who feed the Concept•Aid products. The data will be compiled into an online database that will allow us to prove the advantage of feeding Concept•Aid with the Amaferm advantage. Using this data, we will be able to assist our customers in making better management decisions as well as identifying factors that will enable us to further develop the Concept•Aid product line.

If you have a customer that you would like to see included in this study, please reach out to your ASM to participate.

August 2017 – Letters from Lisa

For many years of my career, I was a business consultant. Now, before you turn the page thinking consultants just don’t get it, give me a few more minutes. In that role, the first question I always asked each business was “what is your goal?” Almost always the answer was to make more money or worse yet many answered, “I don’t really know.” The latter is almost impossible to help, but there are lots of ways to make more money. All of these start with having a clear picture of the opportunity that exists and knowing the best way to take advantage of that opportunity and marry the culture and vision in which you have built your business. Anytime you bring more people into the fold (sub-dealers, employees, partners, etc.) it is imperative that they are clear on the culture, vision, opportunity and approach if making more money (the goal) is to become a reality.

Being clear is not always easy because things are always changing. It is further complicated by the fact that clearly communicating that vision takes lots of time, time none of us seem to have. And finally, change and communication are the two things most people don’t do well.

Certainly, the desire to make more money is simple. So, why is doing it so complex and where does one even begin? Whenever complex things need to be made simple, I always go back to my childhood. My mom was amazing at making things simple, so they would be less stressful for me. One of her techniques was to use tricky little sayings (the fancy word for this is mnemonics) to help me remember facts I needed to get good grades (a large stress for me). One of my favorites was “I before E except after C or when sounding like A in neighbor and weigh.”

I still tend to look for mnemonics to help me keep our amazing team (having an amazing team is imperative to all of this) surrounded with clarity. So here it is: culture eats vision and then invites the 5 D’s over for a snack.

Culture is what gets you to your goal; vision determines the goal. If you articulate a great vision to an organization without the appropriate culture, you’ll never achieve the vision. If your organization has a wonderful culture, but no vision, then you might really enjoy your time together, but you’ll never go anywhere. I believe that the issue is not vision vs. culture, but how to achieve vision + culture. Once you have the sum of the two, you can focus on inviting the 5 D’s to the party. When they arrive they will each represent something unique but connected:

Determine One must HAVE A CLEAR PICTURE of the opportunities available to impact the goal.

Define One must DEFINE & TRACK the GOAL to help guide going after the opportunity.

Decide Hitting a goal is not a fluke, it is intentional. DECIDE how you will hit the goal and implement the plan!

Drive Nothing happens without a driver. DRIVE!

Deflect Lots of folks and things will try to derail the mnemonic. Wear a SUIT OF ARMOUR and deflect them all.

All of this is a lot of work, so don’t forget to celebrate ANY accomplishments along the way. I would love for you to share those with me. I promise that I totally understand that no matter how small you think your accomplishments are, they are major. Major accomplishments deserve a backflip, and that is exactly what I will attempt in the midst of my excitement for you!