Letters From Lisa – May 2022

This month’s focus is on Sure Champ® and Vita Charge®, two product lines that have experienced growth. What has created this success? Supporting young people involved in livestock. I know you are wriggling your nose right now, and thinking this lady is nuts. Nuts since we all know that helping young people doesn’t grow sales or pay bills. While whether I am nuts or not is debatable, my response is not. Economics are not all that matters, even in business.

BioZyme®, under the leadership of Bob Norton, started supporting youth in livestock back in 2007 when it became the title sponsor of both the National Junior Hereford Expo and the National Junior Angus Show. Why did we do this? Because these events and junior programs help create and shape youth that matter. As I was writing this note to all of you, I took a moment and asked Bod why he started making this a focus. His response was pretty simple, “The people in the industry are a lifestyle worth working to sustain. Livestock families are unique and special and extremely important to the welfare of the community, the state and the country.”

Darcy from the blog, Success is Reason Enough, lists the following facts about youth people who show cattle, but in my opinion, it applies to kids who show any animal.

  • They wake up early before school, to feed and care for their animals.
  • They stay up late in the evenings working hair, feeding rations and making sure their steer is rinsed one more time before they head to bed.
  • They know how to respect others.
  • They know how to receive critique, how to ask questions and how to push just a little bit longer.
  • They know how to evaluate their own cattle and others; and how to defend themselves verbally in front of a judge.
  • They know that one little tweak in a showing can be the difference between a championship slap…. or nothing.
  • They know that whatever you placed first or last…. you still need to shake the judge’s hand.
  • They can load up a trailer and set off to a show halfway across the country by themselves, because they know how to care for their livestock and budget their money, so they still have enough for diesel on the way home.
  • They know that those around them are trying to beat them in the ring…. but when they walk out the gate, if a fellow showman needed the proverbial shirt off their back, they’d hand it to them in a heartbeat.

That sounds like the perfect applicant for every position we have at BioZyme. And without this type of workforce in out future, the USA will never reach its full potential.

If you are still asking why we do this, let me reiterate that these young people are our future. More importantly, they are agriculture’s future. And for them, the experience of showing matters. And making kids feel like they matter; well…. it matters to us.

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