Dealer Spotlight: Results Lead Lazy SK to Believing in Amaferm ® Advantage

Seeing is believing. That’s what it took to get Spike Buffington hooked on the BioZyme® products. Spike, a Montana rancher, who has been involved in the cattle business his entire life, had never heard of the products five years ago. But when he went to work for his wife’s uncle and saw the way it worked on that cow herd, he became a became a believer. 

“I liked what I saw. The cows seemed healthier, and they looked healthier. I studied about the Amaferm® in the VitaFerm products. That seems to make a big difference,” he said. 

Since there wasn’t a dealer very close to his family’s ranch, Spike decided to become a BioZyme dealer, under the name of Lazy SK LLC, to be able to access the products more easily near Miles City, Montana. He said with a ranch to tend to and four kids, he wasn’t looking for another full-time job, but more of a sideline.  

Even as a “sideline” business, Spike has been able to grow his BioZyme dealership as word spreads from rancher to rancher. In the big country where his located, larger herds of commercial cow-calf operations exist. He interacts with the ranchers and shares the benefits of the Amaferm in the VitaFerm line, his most popular products. He has diversified to offer DuraFerm® and Vitalize®.  

“The results are noticeable. If a guy hasn’t fed a mineral for a while or is a new customer, they will notice the visual things right away. The hair coat quality is better and on black cattle, the color turns a true black,” Spike said. “Overall, my customers find their herd health is better and with the Concept•Aid®, their conception rates are better.” 

He shares a story about a customer who switched to Concept•Aid, who saw a 10% jump in his herd’s conception rates and weaned off calves 25 pounds heavier than previous years – during a drought. Both Spike and his customer credit the nutrition program with those results since that is the only change that ranch had made in at least two decades.  

Spike uses the resources and tools that BioZyme offers and suggest that other dealers do as well. From the marketing support to ASMs, he said the people are professional and have helped him promote a good product. 

“Lean on your ASM. If they don’t know the answer, they will find it for you. The Marketing Team does great, professional work and is easy to work with. Everyone just wants to see you succeed,” he said. 

When seeing is believing, and that is backed up with results – that defines “Care that Comes Full Circle.” Thanks for being a great promoter of Amaferm and the BioZyme products, Spike! We’re glad you’re part of the BioZyme family.   

Remembering Bob Norton

It is with shock and sadness that we announce the sudden death of BioZyme® Inc. CEO Bob Norton. He passed away April 13, 2022.

Bob was a driving force behind BioZyme, and he encouraged everyone to be, and do, their best.  He was a fine, generous person and his spirit will forever be the foundation of our great company.

Bob started with the organization in 2000 after a lengthy career in the meat packing industry. As CEO, Bob oversaw the activities of the employee-owned company, headquartered in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and worked closely with the President and COO to monitor growth both domestically and internationally. Although day-to-day activities had transitioned to the President and COO and the leadership team several years ago, Bob remained the ultimate team leader and innovation champion. His lasting legacy and philosophy will remain the guidepost for BioZyme.  Business is strong and will continue to grow.

The Saint Joseph native enjoyed giving back to others, aviation and was active in the Veterans Airlift Command. He was also passionate about the future of agriculture and has been recognized for his contributions by being inducted in the Honorary Angus Foundation. He previously served on the Certified Angus Beef® Board of Directors. He was a promoter of the National Junior Hereford Association, currently serving on the Hereford Youth Foundation of America Board.

Bob epitomized the BioZyme motto, “care that comes full circle,” in all he did and with everyone he met. His smile was infectious, his handshake firm and his words sincere.

The BioZyme Incorporated offices and operations will be closed on Tuesday, April 19 until 1 p.m. The memorial service for CEO Bob Norton begins at 11 a.m., at Wyatt Park Baptist Church, and will be live-streamed via www.meierhoffer.com

TUNE IN TODAY!

You won’t want to miss this month’s Facebook Live! With so many new updates and things happening, we thought it was time to hear from a familiar voice to many – Jennifer Miller! Jen is going to provide updates on the Updated Master Dealer and the new look of the Online Dealer Center. And as always, she’s got a little fun up her sleeve, so you won’t want to miss this Facebook Live! TODAY at Noon, Central.

Two Minutes In Ag: April

They say the world is full of bad news; unfortunately, there is some truth in that. However, we can always find the good if we look, too. This month we will bring you some of both in our industry in a quick two-minute read.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has impacted poultry production in more than half the states so far. To date, the virus is linked to the death of nearly 23 million birds. Iowa—the nation’s largest egg producer—is the hardest-hit state, having lost 13.2 million poultry already. This is the largest virus outbreak in the poultry industry since 2015.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a relief package specifically for livestock producers. USDA will launch the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) to address increases in supplemental feed costs in 2021. The ERLP will use data from the 2021 Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) to make payments to affected producers—producers do not have to apply for the aid if they were approved for an LFP payment. There will be a pay cap, but details have not been released on that front.

Phase 1 of the payments is expected to total $577 million, basing the payments on percentage of an eligible producers’ gross 2021 LFP payment—90% for historically underserved producers and 75% for all other producers. USDA said it was evaluating impacts of 2021 drought and wildfires on livestock producers as it develops the Phase 2 component.

Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, does offer some encouragement for profitability in the cattle business, as prices are higher than they were a year ago at this time, and he doesn’t expect them to dip. Where the revenue will be affected is on the expense side of the equation, as drought continues. Feed prices will be the highest input cost for producers. Peel recommends grazing cattle as long as possible without feeding hay, even if that means some targeted fertilizing for both pasture and hay production. This is just another reason promoting a mineral with Amaferm® is so important for that nutrient utilization.

Meet the BioZyme Family

Team: Operations Support – Production

Leader: Dan Wierzba, Senior Manager of Production

Number of people on your team: 8

Key Responsibilities: Ensure we produce, package and palletize the highest quality product in the world in an efficient and timely manner.

List of each team member and role they play at BioZyme:

Dan Wierzba – Senior Manager of Production: Oversees daily operations with all aspects of production, plans and manages capital projects at Stockyards facility.

Cody Jensen – Manufacturing Manager: Oversees daily operations ensuring product and packaging accuracy, daily run list completion and constant monitoring and improvement of production efficiency.

Garret Glaubius – Stockyards DryingCoordinator: Operates the Amaferm® dryer. Ensuring the demands of mixing, domestic and international Amaferm customers are met with the highest quality product available.

Cody Grider – Mixing Technician: Operates the batching system responsible for the completion of the daily mixing run list, ensuring only safe, accurate product reaches the bag.

Brent Schultz – Concetti Line Operator: Responsible for verifying the accuracy of bagging runs, organizing product inventory in the warehouse and ensuring the highest quality pallets are delivered from the Concetti.

Charlie Lett – Drying Coordinator: Operates the Amaferm dryer ensuring the demands of mixing, domestic and international Amaferm customers are met with the highest quality product available.

Timmy Wilson – Pelleting Operator: Operates the pellet mill and pellet bagging line, responsible for producing the highest quality pellet, combined with packaging the pellets in a qualitative and timely manner.

Benjamin Shaw – Concetti Bagging Operator: Operates the Concetti bagging line, ensuring all supplements and additives are accurate in their packaging and weight and bagged in an aesthetic manner that surpasses the customers’ expectations.

How does your team help with “Care that comes full circle” for BioZyme customers: We monitor every batch that is produced and ensure each individual bag is of the highest possible quality. The Production Team is always mindful of our customers and the health and safety of the animals we feed.

Effective Action: People Offer Ultimate Support “Systems”

Sometimes the best support system comes in the form of your fellow person, and that can be said for the various teams at BioZyme. Our dealers are very important to us, and we want to ensure they have all the tools to succeed, that is why we offer a variety of systems and people to assist them in their business.

Area Sales Managers
The ASMs are BioZyme’s boots on the ground team who represent the company across the country. This team of knowledgeable men and women are likely the first people that dealers will have face-to-face interactions with and are their go-to for assistance on product information and ways to build their business. Dealers are encouraged to reach out to their ASM when they need help understanding new products or need a sounding board for how to reach out to prospective customers.

Outreach and Customer Support
The Outreach and Customer Support Team is available via phone and email to help customers – you – to make sure you have a positive experience. They help with placing and tracking orders, keeping your contact information updated and answer a myriad of questions that you might have about products, merchandise and literature.

Nutrition Support
One of the best benefits a nutrition company can offer is full-time nutrition support,
and BioZyme has that with its Nutrition Team coupled with its Business Development Team. This support system works to help educate dealers and your customers about the nutritional components of the BioZyme products and more.
Staff nutritionists work to help analyze hay samples and develop feed rations and recommendations based on your customer’s available feed.

Marketing Support
Marketing is key to your business’s success, and that is why BioZyme has made so many marketing tools, including its Marketing Team available to its dealers. If you need any marketing help, that assistance is just a few clicks away, through the online Marketing Request form in the Online Dealer Center. Click on Marketing and then Marketing Requests to submit the type of help you need. Marketing can help you create a logo, signage, write a radio script, develop a print or e-mail ad and so much more!

Not all systems come in a computer! At BioZyme, we feel our best support comes from the people who work here who care about the dealers, the customers and each other. Reach out to anyone of the team or complete a marketing request and you’ll see what care that comes full circle is all about.

Tell Everyone: Use Multiple Marketing Systems To Get Your Message Out

You can have the best products or services in the world, but until you put aside time and resources for marketing, you likely aren’t going to see a growth in your sales. Marketing is vital to helping discover and qualify leads and maintain contact prospects. Although many companies traditionally separate sales and marketing into individual pillars, when the two work collaboratively, a company will likely
experience increased performance, which leads to more revenue and ultimately more profit.

How do you choose the marketing system that works for your business? There are many opportunities for marketing from print and radio to social media and in-person trainings to signage and promotions. Therefore, it is best to utilize more than one marketing system to capture your audience and share your message.

“There are so many ways to get your company’s message across that it’s best if you don’t focus on just one,” said Macall Compton, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at BioZyme Inc. “The goal should be to capture as many potential customers as possible, so you want to be where they are.”

According to Compton, social media is the common place where many customers and potential customers gather. A majority of Americans now have smart phones or tablets, and farmers and ranchers use that technology at their fingertips to get the weather, check the markets and even research and purchase their animal nutrition products.

With the use of social media in mind, the BioZyme Marketing Team created a partnership with Promoboxx, providing its dealers with current content across all
brands to post to their social media platforms. The content is free to use, is updated regularly to align with the national marketin campaigns, and Promobox provides 24-hour customer support. Compton said Promoboxx is simply the easiest way for
dealers to post pre-created content to their social media at no cost.

Another valuable tool she recommends is the producer meeting. Though many dealers are familiar with producer meetings, BioZyme will print and send invitations to customers, with a proper mailing list and adequate preparation time. These meetings are also a great way to interact and let potential customers hear from others who use the products.

Another valuable tool she recommends is the producer meeting. Though many dealers are familiar with producer meetings, BioZyme will print and send invitations to customers, with a proper mailing list and adequate preparation time. These meetings are also a great way to interact and let potential customers hear from others who use the products.

“Producer meetings are a great way to expose more people to your products and get in that valuable face-to-face time,” Compton said. BioZyme staff are available to speak at the meetings and help you help your customers.

Multiple other ways of sharing your message are also available from the Marketing Team, through the Marketing Request Center (see more about this on page 9). BioZyme’s Marketing Team can help you design mailers, print advertisements, radio spots, e-blasts, signage, swag and more!

It’s best to use multiple ways of marketing to reach multiple people. Each person responds differently to different messages, and it takes an average of seven impressions to make a point. Multiple marketing systems work! Reach out. Share your message. Watch your business grow!


Know Your Checkbook: How Can An Inventory System Increase Efficiency?

With so many systems and procedures for a business to use, there is one that undoubtedly can help you be more efficient in all your daily activities. An inventory control system might sound complex, but in reality, it will make your daily transactions run smoother and help you provide products to your customers in a timelier manner. You can’t sell what you don’t have, and an investment in inventory management just makes sense.

Jamie Miller, BioZyme Director of Operations Support, said there are three primary benefits for a business to have an inventory system in place.

First, the inventory system will allow the business to visualize its actual inventory. With stacks of feed or supplement bags that may be similar in colors, it can be challenging to keep track of what is actually in stock, especially with multiple employees selling current inventory or unloading new inventory. A centralized computer system helps manage the inventory so you can sell your older stock first, making room for new merchandise that has a longer shelf life.

Miller recommends using the FIFO (first in, first out) system as compared to the LIFO (last in, first out) system to keep inventory its freshest.

The second benefit Miller suggests is warehouse management.

“Depending on the sophistication of your software, these inventory control systems also serve as a great way to know where each product is located in your warehouse so you can go directly to the bin or area to streamline order processing and delivery,” Miller said.

Whether you have one warehouse or multiple warehouses, knowing where products are located by product or lot number will increase the efficiency of filling orders.

Traceability is perhaps the most important aspect to an inventory system, according to Miller. Being part of the Safe Feed, Safe Food certification, BioZyme’s inventory tracking system allows it to track all ingredients from where they came from through the products they are put into and to what dealer they are sold, which is important for any recall that might happen.

“Traceability is the biggest thing of importance in animal livestock nutrition inventory systems,” Miller said. “Even the simplest inventory software systems typically have a recall report to help with traceability, which would be very important in the case of a feed mill.”

Inventory tracking isn’t as simple as counting bags or tubs of products or chalking up tally marks on a legal pad. Increasing efficiencies with product deliveries, mapping your warehouse and tracking products are all important to the success of your business. Don’t let the investment in the software scare you off, because you will see long-term rewards.

Know Your Customer: Is A CRM A Necessary System?

You know how important it is to build quality customer relationships. But how essential is it to have a Customer Relationship Management System in place to help keep and track those relationships? Very, according to one article posted on Forbes.com.

“Any company will benefit from maintaining a record of which conversations, purchases and marketing material can be associated with leads and customers,” wrote author Jason Kulpa.

Veteran BioZyme sales reps agree that managing customer information is vital to any company’s success. Mike Wadle, Additive Territory Manager, and Rod Hutcheson, Animal Health Business Development Manager, shared their thoughts on the importance of organizing customer data and the systems to use.

Keys to Success
Wadle said tracking customer information is vital to help the customer succeed. When dealers understand each operation’s challenges and goals, the dealer takes on the role of a trusted confidant – more of a friend or consultant than a salesperson. With multiple customers it is important to keep all of that information in one location and to keep it current.

“The relationship between the dealer and his or her customer is part of the success of the business. If the customer has success, then I have success. If he has failure, then I will likely fail too,” Wadle said.

Hutcheson shares one example of how he has gathered information over time that makes the customer feel like he or she matters. When he pulls up at a producer’s place and the family dog runs to greet him, he remembers that the producer says, “get back, Charlie,” while calling the dog off. On his next visit, when the dog approaches him, Hutcheson can greet the dog, “hey Charlie,” and scratch his ear, impressing the producer that he remembered his best companion’s name.

“People will do business with those who care about them. It all goes back to the adage, that people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care,” Hutcheson said.

Choosing a System
Just like anything, there are many CRM tracking systems. Hutcheson and Wadle agree that it is most important to use a system that the user is comfortable with, especially if you are a smaller business or not sharing that information across several people or departments. “The best system is the system that works best for you,” Hutcheson said. “That might be an index card or 3-ring binder or keeping
information in your iPhone. I always pull up the person’s contact information in my phone when I’m with them to make sure everything is still correct.”

The next step might be to track customer information electronically via an excel spreadsheet or other database system. You can then share this across users via Dropbox or other sharing platforms.

Of course, there are more technical CRM software systems that allow multiple users to share a plethora of information about customers, similar to what BioZyme uses. These can track basic customer information, orders, marketing, shipping, contact methods and conversations and more. These come with a price tag, but are worth the investment, especially in a growing business.

The bottom line is the customer likes to feel valued. Make sure you know that customer and his or her vital information and can manage that information using a system that works best for you and your business. You and your customers will find success!

Letters From Lisa – April 2022

Systems and processes are the essential building blocks of our companies. Every facet of our business—on the production floor, in the warehouse or in the office—is part of a system that can be managed or improved. A system is designed to connect all of an organization’s intricate parts and interrelated steps so they can work together for the achievement of success.

There are several reasons to implement a business system.

Improving Top-Line Performance: In short, a business system takes care of your future. It ensures if you know you are meeting your customers’ expectations, which is key to growing a healthy business.

Meeting Customer’s Expectations: If you use a system like a CRM and a systematic approach, your organization will be motivated to analyze, measure, compare and test all the possibilities of what your customers want and don’t want.

Employee Development: The goal of the development system is to enable proper education and opportunities to all employees so they can complete their work more efficiently and effectively.

Reduce Costs and Increase Profits: It has been proven time and again that the implementation of a sound business system helps reduce costs. However, a good business system is intended to reduce costs without taking the shortcuts that often lead to an erosion of profitability by lowering quality expectations or service levels.

Unfortunately, you can’t just go buy a business system, you must build it, and it includes 100 parts: an information system, an IT system, a CRM system, a production system, a drive Lisa nuts system and an etc.,etc., etc. system. The choices are many, and therefore the decisions are many, which is sometimes hard. I am by no means a system expert, but this month we will focus on sharing about the three that I do feel we have done well – the CRM, Inventory and Marketing Project Management. I have always believed that most every challenge in business can be solved if you 1) get the right system in place, 2) then develop the processes to properly use that system and then finally 3) ensure the people involved are in the right seat on the bus and are personally inspired to keep themselves accountable to these system and processes. So, you can see I believe systems are first. Why?

  1. Systems provide consistency: With business systems, you can more easily produce the same products and services with the same level of consistency. Once you have created your systems and developed the processes engaged with the systems, your employees can easily be consistent.
  2. Change is easier to accomplish: Systems make a business predictable. So, when change impacts your business – which may often occur these days – knowing that becomes easier. You will also then better predict how the change should be handled.
  3. Training new employees becomes easier: New hires can be quickly integrated into your business when there is a system and a set of procedures for them to follow, so they know exactly what is expected.
  4. Staff can focus on what they do best: Once business systems are established and implemented, some activities can be performed on “autopilot.” Repetitive activities in your business become routine, so you and your team can focus on activities with higher payoffs.

Systems are what make businesses grow, flow, endure and be sustainable. Businesses that effectively use systems find themselves winning against their competition. I leave you with this thought. If you don’t have the resources or time to pick a “high tech” system don’t ignore this letter of ideas. At BioZyme, we have had to start with a paper “system” MANY times. What I have found is that what is not ok to say is, “I will get a system when I can afford it or once this or that happens.” DO IT now, even if it is using a concrete tablet.

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