Dealer Spotlight: Earlybird

For one dealer, keeping education at the forefront of its customer service is key. Earlybird, with three Illinois locations and one in Missouri, has a sales and marketing team of individuals who grew up in the livestock industry and know the importance of youth programs. That is why it is imperative that they continue to provide education, training and support to their young customers today.

“No question is a bad one. We encourage you to ask us all the questions about your livestock. It is our job to do everything we can to get you on the right track. Nutrition, animal management and prepping for a show all goes hand in hand, and how you handle one or the other will affect your outcome,” said Codee Schmidgall, Marketing Specialist at Earlybird. “The beauty about our team is that they grew up raising and showing livestock and many of them go home and put the exact same efforts into their own. They live it, breathe it and know what it takes to be successful. All you have to do is ask!”

In addition to answering customer questions, Earlybird takes a proactive approach to educating its customers and supporting the youth. They have conducted and sponsored several multispecies clinics and shows around the Midwest. Recently, they conducted a show pig clinic in southern Illinois where a few of their feed specialists talked about “how to take care of and manage show pig projects from the time they enter the barn to the time they reach their target show.”

“When we do host a clinic, we encourage the whole family to come especially if the kids are just starting out! Showing livestock is a family affair and we think that if everybody has a little insight on what to do then it takes the pressure off just one family member,” Schmidgall said.

Creating partnerships with companies like BioZyme, helps Earlybird when it is time to provide educational opportunities. BioZyme will help sponsor an Earlybird show or donate products for events like the Illinois Beef Expo and other shows.

“Not only do we enjoy working with the BioZyme team, but we believe that their products work! Vita Charge® HydraBoost™ has been an absolute HIT with many of the pig breeders around Illinois and has become more and more popular with our out of state customers. Around this time of year, many families walk away with products like Vita Charge® Liquid Boost®, Climate Control Gel, and the Stress Tubs because that is what they use to #preptowin,” she said.

And, what sells their Sure Champ and Vita Charge products? Amaferm®, of course!

“The Amaferm Advantage is key! BioZyme has done such a great job at pushing information out there that backs these products up which makes our jobs easy. I cannot speak for all the feed specialists because they have their own preferences and experiences, but I know my family does not leave for a show without a bag of Sure Champ Cattle in our trailer,”Schmidgall said.

Earlybird is around for the long haul, for its seasoned customers and for its younger customers who are just getting started in the show industry. In addition, they offer two summer internships to students interested in youth and the feed business. According to Schmidgall, the interns are also great at interacting with the youth at as many events possible and help promote their customers’ successes via social media.

“The Earlybird mission has been based on providing a variety of highquality feeds that exceed the needs of our large customer base, but most off all we have put a strong emphasis on our service, and our ability to help families achieve their goals. This family-owned business has always had its sights set on supporting and promoting the next generation of the agriculture industry; and we will continue to make it a priority!”

That’s care that comes full circle.

Products that Help #PreptoWin in the Ring and in Life

Care that Comes Full Circle at BioZyme® extends far beyond just the care for our animals – it extends to the care takers, too. Sure Champ® is a brand that strives to provide quality products for show livestock while extending a branch of outreach to the young people who care for the livestock, who hold the future of our industry in their hands!

Sure Champ® is a line of livestock show supplements that proactively work to assist with the challenges created by the show environment. Sure Champ uses only the highest quality components and proprietary ingredients proven to generate high-yielding results.

Sure Champ for your CATTLE:

Sure Champ Cattle, Sure Champ Extreme with Climate Control

Sure Champ for your Small Species:

Sure Champ Spark, Sure Champ Extreme with Climate Control

Sure Champ Leadership Team Scholarship

The Sure Champ Leadership Team Scholarship program strives to reward young livestock enthusiasts looking to sharpen and expand their leadership skills. Each year we award 10, $500 scholarships to people wishing to attend a breed association leadership conference of their choice. This year, we partnered with the Hereford, Angus, Simmental and Maine Anjou Associations.

This year’s team has representation from 10 different states and all four breeds!

Sure Champ Developmental Resources

The summer is a time of great opportunity for youth involved in agriculture when it comes to job opportunities and internships. Sure Champ serves as a hub for useful resources to help students achieve the outcomes they desire.

Summer Show Tour

We always love to hit the road every summer and show our support for the junior breed associations Junior National Shows. It is great to engage and connect with Junior customers both new and old! This summer you can find us at:

• The Exposition

• Maine/Chi Junior Nationals

• Simmental Junior Nationals

• Hereford Junior Nationals

• Steer Show Junior Nationals

AND we will have the help of a summer intern – another way Sure Champ strives to provide professional opportunities to our youth!

Educational Resources At Your Fingertips

Gone are the days of flipping through voluminous, outdated encyclopedias for information. Instead, our first instinct is, “I’ll just Google that.” But how does information get onto Google? Did you know that the BioZyme® Marketing Team utilizes various search engine optimization (SEO) tools and Google Analytics to determine what end-users are looking for on Google and various search engines? They do. Then, they use that information to develop educational resources that you can use to help educate your customers. Those resources are available at the click of a button at www.biozymeinc.com.

Gestation Calculators are available for cattle, sheep and goats. These calculators allow the breeders to input breeding dates to get their anticipated calving, lambing or kidding dates and also provide the suggested dates for beginning to feed Concept•Aid®. If your customers are already on a year-round Concept•Aid feeding program, there are also gestation tables available for each species. Visit the “Resources” tab at vitaferm.com and duraferm.com to try them out!

Product Quizzes exist for Gain Smart®, Concept•Aid, and Vitalize® so users can discover which product will be best suited for their management scenario. With several great products in these various lines, the Product Quizzes allow you to input information about your animals and the feedstuffs you have available to them before selecting the ideal supplements. These can be found on the product pages on these brand websites.

Cost Calculators are effective tools to help predict how Amaferm® and the various product lines can help add money to your bottom line. A variety of calculators exist including a VitaFerm Cost of Gain Calculator, an Amaferm Value Calculator and a Forage Savings Calculator. All of these are found on the “Resources” tab at vitaferm.com. The Amaferm Value Calculator is also found under the “Resources” tab on the Gain Smart page.

Hay Testing and Forage Analysis is vital to know what nutrients you are needing to supplement with. At BioZyme, we offer hay testing as a service to our customers. Once that report is received, it is important to know what to do with the information. On the VitaFerm, Gain Smart, DuraFerm and Vitalize pages under the “Services” tab, you will find complete information about hay testing with a form that tells how to interpret you data and an another interactive form that allows you to input the protein and energy information to get even more information about which products to feed.

The BioZyme website is full of useful interactive calculators and tools just like these. Check back often or watch the Dealer Facebook page for updates as more are added.

Sure Champ® In The Classroom Gets A Makeover

If something isn’t broken, there is no need to fix it; however, there is always room to make improvements in the tried and true. That is what has been happening this winter and spring as the Sure Champ in the Classroom website received a makeover to provide more user-friendly information that is easier to find, broken down by both topics and species.

Sure Champ in the Classroom is an online resource designed to help young people #preptowin in life. The online resource offers educational information about basic animal husbandry, livestock evaluation, preparing a cover letter and resume, preparing for CDEs and more.

“The Sure Champ in the Classroom resource page has especially been targeted to help agriculture educators and advisors thrive and develop their lesson plans in the classroom. With the progression and popularity of ‘virtual’ resources, we have come to realize that education doesn’t just happen in the classroom – it can happen anywhere. We revamped our resource page to be more user friendly for all demographics: teachers, students, advisors, 4-H and FFA members alike,” said Jessie Judge, BioZyme Marketing Brand Manager for Beef and Show Livestock, who manages the website. “These resources cover a wide scope of topics to help teachers in the classroom, support students getting started with new livestock projects, provide tips for career development endeavors and more. We’re all familiar with the phrase ‘the best learning happens in the barn,’ and that same principle drove our decision to overhaul our resources – the classroom can be ANYWHERE. Learning isn’t confined to just the classroom.”

BioZyme® feels that it is important to have well-educated young people involved in agriculture as they become industry advocates. The company also wants these same young people to succeed both in the show ring and in and out of the classroom. The makeover of this site divides learning activities by species so someone with a pig can easily go to the pig resources to find information about selection, nutrition, reading ear notches, commingling animals and a checklist of equipment needed when showing pigs. If you are preparing for a livestock judging contest, a variety of judging classes with placings, cuts and reasons are posted under the Judging Classes and also divided by species. Finally, a host of educational topics live under the educational posts that range from reading a feed tag to preparing for an internship or job interview.

“Equipping young people in our industry with the tools they need to win and be successful in life is vital to the success of our business because these young people are the future of our industry. When they surpass the show ring, many of them will seek careers in this industry and contribute to our progression as an agriculture industry at large. It is important for Sure Champ to make an impact on these young people early on through means of education and leadership opportunities not only to leave a lasting impression and emphasize our Care that Comes Full Circle vision, but to ensure they are prepared to go into the career field and thrive in supporting the industry we serve,” Judge said.

If you have a young customer who is new to livestock showing or who needs material to study for an FFA or 4-H project, guide them to the Sure Champ in the Classroom page. There is a wealth of information there that will help them #preptowin in and out of the show ring!

Letters From Lisa – May 2021

“Upon the subject of education. . . I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.” – Abraham Lincoln

Too many companies seem to believe that ignorance makes for the best customers. Actually, the more informed and empowered customers are, the more satisfied and confident they are with their choice of you. And that kind of confidence almost always leads to loyalty. In the end, isn’t that what all of this is really about?

By only reaching people to convert them into customers, you are limiting your potential to generate new customers. So, if you want to change how people perceive you, you need to distinguish yourself as a leading educational voice.

Customer education doesn’t just boil down to one or two small benefits. Its positive effects are numerous. They’re also intertwined, and when done well, it feeds a much bigger machine, helping to fuel your business’s growth.

To begin assessing the needs of your customer education initiative you must know your customers’ pain points, then you can develop a plan to help overcome these. For this, you’ll need the right tools and resources to help.

There are a wide variety of first-class tools available through BioZyme in our Online Dealer Center. These will help you deliver efficient and effective training. The below graphic is a good visual to keep your education track on course.

CHANGES COMING IN MAY 2021

NEW PRODUCTS

  • On May 1, BioZyme® will launch two new Vitalize® products. Vitalize Blazin’ is a product developed for horses to support normal recovery from heat stress and exertion. It is available in a 64 oz and 32 oz bottle. Additionally, Vitalize JumpStart will be added to the price list and serve as a nutritional boost to support the immune system of foals, weanlings and young horses. It is available in a 1-gallon jug. Blazin’ and JumpStart will be offered in a liquid form, designed to be used as a top dress and drench, respectively.
  • On April 1, BioZyme launched VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® 5/S HEAT® with Clarifly®. This product will only be available in registered states. The states we have received approval for are: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

PRICING UPDATES

  • According to the March 31 Wall Street Journal, makers of everything from diapers to cereal are starting to feel the strain of higher prices on literally everything. Cheerios™ maker General Mills said it will raise prices to partly offset higher freight and manufacturing costs, in addition to rising commodity prices. J.M. Smucker Co. said it recently raised prices for its Jif® peanut butter and that it might do the same with pet snacks because of higher shipping costs. Global supply chains, which were already experiencing a crunch due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have seen additional supply disruptions. The February freeze that triggered mass blackouts in Texas led to chemical plant shutdowns and caused a shortage of the raw materials needed for almost everything. As a result, prices for polyethylene, polypropylene and other chemical compounds reached their highest levels in years. The maker of Gillette® razors and Tide detergent cited rising costs for raw materials, such as resin and pulp, and higher expenses to transport goods in their price increases. The point is that almost everything is going up in price. BioZyme has been hit hard by these same dynamics. We received notice this month that things that rarely change in price are all going up. This includes bags, mineral oil, ink, labels, ingredients, fuel surcharges, pallets, the plywood in between the tub layers (this one has gone up this year from $13 to $95) and the list goes on and on. We are trying to do everything in our power to keep these changes under control, but you should know that this is an unprecedented time in our history as it is for all of us. So, hang in there with this and we will all survive together and remember it is not how we stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but how we stand during times of challenge that really matter.

SHIPPING UPDATES

  • EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Due to consistent service delays, high damage rates and a change to their freight claim reimbursement policy, BioZyme, Inc is no longer shipping products with Dohrn Transfer Company. Customers and Area Sales Managers [ASM] can still choose to use Dohrn Transfer Company for shipping LTL orders. However, both the Customer and the ASM must sign a Release of Liability for each order for which Dohrn Transfer Company will be used.
  • FREIGHT CLAIM REMINDER: Please remember that you MUST notate what was damaged and sign the DRIVER’S copy of the delivery receipt in order to submit a freight claim. The freight companies deny our claims when the delivery receipt is not signed, and we cannot provide a credit on denied claims.

EMPLOYEE UPDATES

  • Carrie Butley has joined BioZyme as the new Concetti Bagging Operator.

CHANGES COMING IN JUNE 2021

ORDERING UPDATES

  • Starting on June 1, 10 lb. bags of Vitalize® Digest More® Plus can only be ordered in a case quantity of 4 instead of as single bags.

CHANGES COMING IN JULY 2021

PRODUCT UPDATE

  • On July 1, the Vitalize® Alimend® and Vitalize® Alimend® K9 labels will be getting updated to comply with NASC standards. Though the presentation of the labels will look different, the formula and ingredients will remain the same. The feeding directions will be changed to mL (instead of ounces), but the feeding rate will not change.