Category: Dealers Like You

Dealer Spotlight: Kaycee Macgibbon

Most of the time we think of community as the area we live – it might be our rural neighborhood, our town or even our county. But for one BioZyme® dealer with a passion for the equine business, her “horse” community stretches from New Mexico to North Carolina and from Wyoming to Florida. Kaycee MacGibbon, from Crouse, N.C., comes by her passion rightly; she is the fourth generation born into a rodeo family. She and her family always worked with horses – raising, training, breaking, showing and competing on them. It wasn’t until tragedy struck in 2014, that she started advocating for their health.

“Equine nutrition has evolved over the years. We always knew how horses worked, unfortunately we didn’t have a good nutrition program back then because we didn’t have all the research and knowledge we do now,” MacGibbon said. “I always tried to feed the best feed I could, but unfortunately in 2014, all my horses died of Rumensin toxicity. That is when I would start educating myself on equine nutrition. Through that and through learning proper diet and nutrition for horses, I found out about Vitalize® , and I started feeding it and it did wonders for all my horses – even the horses I thought were looking good and really healthy. They improved another 75% at least, once I put them on Vitalize.”

Although MacGibbon experienced immediate results when she put her horses on Vitalize, it was almost a year later before she decided to become a dealer. And now, she shares the Vitalize message of the importance of a “good gut feeling” with her equine community, rodeo friends and family both near and far.

“A lot of time when you start new products, the first 60-90 days you are like ‘wow, this is really working,’ then it plateaus, and it quits working. But with Vitalize it did not do that. It improved the animal’s overall health, digestive tract, hoof, hair coat, brain, everything. It continued a year later, which was really impressive to me because I have never seen another product do that. I wanted to become a dealer because I wanted to share this with all my people in the barrel horse industry, rope horse industry, the rodeos, the shows, and everybody to be privy to this information and have this help their horses as much as it has helped mine. And through that I met (ASM) Justin O’Flaherty, and I became a dealer and it has been a huge snowball effect from there,” MacGibbon said.

With such a large network of friends and colleagues in her equine community, MacGibbon said it hasn’t been hard to sell the products. And if she gets people interested in the product too far from home, she will point them in the direction of an another ASM like Rowdy Pope who will help them find a dealer in their area.

MacGibbon said the split is about even with her approaching people to tell them about the products or people coming to her seeking advice about their horses. But her advice and the outcome are almost always the same – the horses usually have gut health issues, and Vitalize typically makes them feel better.

“If the gut’s weakened, the body’s weakened. And 99.99% of the time, it is poor digestibility. Basically, their horse’s digestive tract has shut down, and we get them on the Vitalize. In 10-15 days, I get a text, saying ‘Oh wow! My horse is already looking better. They are happier; they are healthier. Thank you so much.’ I usually say, ‘Don’t thank me. Thank Vitalize,’” she said.

And for the skeptics, who are used to a “supplement on every corner,” and not sure they want to try Vitalize, MacGibbon offers some free product because she knows once they try the Vitalize, they will be hooked. She said to this point, she’s never had one person try a “free” sample, who hasn’t returned as a paying customer, making those samples well worth the investment.

“The product speaks for itself. If they try it, they stay with it,” MacGibbon said.

Reaching out to the equine community is what MacGibbon is passionate about. By raising awareness of a sound nutrition program that starts with gut health, she knows she is making a difference for her generation of equine enthusiasts and those generations to come.

Dealer Spotlight: Megan Souder

PROBLEM SOLVING IS MEGAN SOUDER’S PRIORITY

Even though she’s been a BioZyme® dealer for just over a year, Megan Souder doesn’t consider herself a salesperson. She likes to think of herself more as a problem solver, and customer service is the key to her success in her first year.

Prior to joining the dealer network in September 2017, Souder, from Mount Holly Springs, Pa., spent 18 years in the pet industry, serving as a company representative selling cat, dog and other small pet products to stores across Pennsylvania. She also cared for her own animals, a mixed herd of sheep, goats and alpacas.

But, when a trusted friend and mentor suggested she shift gears and start selling BioZyme and Umbarger products, it was the nudge she needed to become her own boss and help her friends and neighbors with their livestock, too.

“I just don’t hand out the literature. I go over the product with them, I don’t assume they are going to read it if they take it with them. I attend livestock shows and 4-H meetings, anything that a customer asks me to attend. This is where I grew up, so I’ll attend any event I’m invited to,” she said. “I also make myself available to answer any of their questions. If I don’t know, I’ll get the answers from my sales rep or someone from inside the business, but I don’t fake those answers. I also use all the resources available to me from BioZyme like literature and all the trainings that I can, so I can inform the customers about the products.”

Souder conveys her knowledge to customers and potential customers. She uses the Online Dealer Center and has completed the Master Dealer Training Program. She shares links to the YouTube videos about the products, so her customers have every opportunity to learn and hear others’ testimonials. She also relies on the Outreach Support Center to help provide her the supplies and information she needs.

“Jen Miller has been fantastic to get me anything I need from the inside to help me represent the products,” Souder said.

Another reason Souder says she is successful is because she is able to focus on limited brands and products, giving her attention to just two companies’ product lines.

“I only carry these two lines –BioZyme and Umbarger because I’m a specialized store and I think the focus is key. I want to be excellent at a few things rather than good at many,” she said.

Her “store” is more of warehouse located close to home. She doesn’t keep regular hours, but her customers know she is just a call or text away if they are running low on product, need something specific or are in the area in the evening and need to “drop by” and pick something up, just another way she can provide excellent customer service.

As for her customer successes, she said each one has their own success story, and it pleases her when a customer calls, texts or emails her with a photo of their animals and their results. She often shares these results on her Facebook or Instagram for others to see. She said the goat breeders who use both loose mineral and stress tubs, have claimed to see decreased toxemia in their does during kidding time and also have higher conception rates and better egg counts when they do A.I. Sheep breeders and exhibitors who have used Sure Champ® Climate Control say their sheep are less stressed and breath better during the heat. And, cattle people love the Vita Charge Stress Tubs to quiet down the fresh-weaned calves and calm down new arrivals.

“My customers are awesome and every one of them have their own success stories. My customers want to promote these products because they have worked so great for them,” she said.

Listening, solving problems, and being available for her customers have helped Megan Souder achieve dealer success in her first year. Yet, she said she doesn’t really look at the tonnage sold, just the number of people and animals she’s helped.

“I started with a blank canvas. I just look forward to what my future holds. I make changes daily to how things will go to best utilize my time,” Souder said.

Dealer Spotlight: Shnurman Sire Service, LLC and SP Genetics LLC

Isaiah Shnurman is a researcher. When he and his family decided to open Shnurman Sire Service, LLC & SP Genetics LLC, a reproductive and embryo transfer (E.T.) facility four years ago in central Iowa, he started exploring the best nutrition he could provide bulls, donors and recips coming to this new facility. The research pointed to BioZyme ® products, and after he saw the results first-hand he joined the dealer network.

“We were looking to fortify the nutritional side of our facility,” Shnurman said. “We really started leaning toward Concept•Aid ® and other VitaFerm® products because they are the most tried, true, proven with research when it comes to numbers and being able to have university data to back up these products. We weren’t going to promote something or use something that wasn’t going to work for us.”

The research behind the BioZyme products assists Shnurman in providing exceptional customer service by showing how to increase efficiencies and profits through a nutrition program. He said any time that producers can learn ways to save money, they are willing to learn, especially when it has real-world data to back it up.

“When it comes to nutrition, anything in the cattle business comes down to dollars and cents and even if we see a 1-2% increase across the board on something we’re using – in the long run that does pay off. With Amaferm ® in the products we are seeing an 8-10% increase in efficiency. On one animal that might not sound like a lot, but on a few thousand, you’re talking about making those cattle more efficient and more productive across the board,” he said.

In addition to the research and data, Shnurman said it has been rewarding to see the products work on the cattle at their facility. He houses and collects some of the most-well known A.I. sires in the business, including the $800,000 Angus bull, SAV Elation. All bulls are on Concept•Aid and Vita Charge ® Stress Tubs. He said the Amaferm advantage in these products has maximized the bulls’ abilities nutritionally to get better quality semen from them.

Education and communication go hand-in-hand for Shnurman. He sends out customer newsletters twice a year with information about new products, what is happening those particular times of year, thanks his customers for their continued business and reminds them he is there for their nutrition needs.

He also hosts producer meetings twice a year. These are more in-depth than the newsletter and offer timely advice about calving, calf resuscitation (CPR) during calving, mating decisions at breeding time, and cow-herd and bull nutrition for increased fertility.

Although newsletters and meetings are good methods of communication, Shnurman says nothing can replace a good face-to-face meeting with a producer at his or her operation, something he tries to do with his all his customers.

“The most important thing a dealer can do is actually go out and visit with their customers and look at cattle with them. Going out and taking a couple of hours out of your day to visit with them about their program will be helpful. They might consider one thing a nutritional hole in their program, but if you go out and actually visit with them, you can learn a lot and helpfully fill in some other holes in their program where they can use some other nutritional fortification.”

In the fall, after harvest is complete, he’ll start working with his customers on forage testing. He said he tests a lot of corn stalk bales to see how those residues will work as a nutritional resource. Then, he starts hay testing to see what nutrients the hay is lacking so the producers can plan their supplementation protocols before the need to feed hay begins. That might be a little more challenging this year according to Shnurman, as good quality hay is at a premium with the early drought and then the excessive rains leading to low production. He knows that everyone faces different challenges and has different goals, and that is what he appreciates about the BioZyme products.

“Not every product we have is for everyone. But we have a product that will do something good for every operation out there,” Shnurman said.

Customer service – making sure all of his customers are happy – is his number one goal. And right behind that is making VIP Dealer Status. With the way that he studies the research, reaches out to his customers and provides top-notch service, Shnurman is well on his way to VIP.

Dealer Spotlight: Paul’s Feed & Seed

There is no task too big or too small for Paul Delbridge when it comes to his customers. And when they make a request, his mission is to make sure their needs are met. The owner of Paul’s Feed & Seed in Faith S.D., had such a request last year, and with the help of his Area Sales Manager Guy Rusche, the mission was accomplished.

Delbridge had two customers, Ryan Vig and Bart Carmichael, come to him and ask for him to produce a range cake that included a complete mineral package. The customers were already feeding VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® 5/S but wanted it to be part of their range cake. Delbridge said that many feed companies offer a cake or cube with a partial mineral package, but that is not what his customers wanted. So, he and Rusche went to work.

“I knew the Farmers & Rancher’s Co-op made a cake out of dried distiller’s grain, and that is what they wanted,” Delbridge said. “So, I contacted them to see if they could add the Concept•Aid to it, and they said they could.”

Just 280 miles south of Faith in Alliance, Neb., the Farmers & Rancher’s Co-op makes the range cakes with the ingredients that the customers were looking for. Delbridge said the two customers had good luck with the product last year. One customer is a cow-calf producer and the other was developing coming-yearling bulls. He predicts the product will be even more popular this year when producers in his area start feeding the range cake – typically November through March.

“The way we figured it, this was even more cost-effective feeding in the cake versus as a free-choice mineral. Plus, we know each animal was meeting their daily requirements by eating the cake,” Delbridge said.

Although this was his first “special request,” Delbridge was glad he could find a solution for his customers. He’s always glad to find a way to help the producers in his area achieve their goals.

Dealer Spotlight: Basore Cattle Company

Basore Brothers Emphasize Educational Importance

Education is a way of life for Travis and Tyson Basore, Basore Cattle Company, Appleton City, Mo. When the brothers became dealers last summer, they both jumped at the opportunity to enroll and complete the BioZyme® Master Dealer Training Program. And for them, becoming students put them on a different side of the desk than what they are used to being on.

Travis is the athletic director, head football coach, teaches weights, and oversees credit recovery and dual-credit courses at Appleton City. Tyson is in his 13th year of education. He teaches high school physical education and weights and is the head varsity boys basketball coach at Adrian. Both their wives are teachers. Their mom also was involved in education.

“As first-time dealers, the Master Dealer Program really helped us gain the most information and knowledge about BioZyme and the products we were going to be selling, outside of Dave (Gallagher),” Travis said. “It was a good investment in our time. I like history anyway, so to get a feel how the company started and from top to bottom I found it very beneficial. We only sell BioZyme products, and if we don’t have even a little information about them, our potential customers might go somewhere else.”

Tyson agrees that the Master Dealer program offered them a vast amount of product knowledge about products they hadn’t used on their own operation. In addition, both brothers appreciate the time and information that their ASM Dave Gallagher shared with them as they got started and continues to share with them. Tyson said he appreciated getting the information that they could pass on to potential customers.

“The training absolutely made our business more marketable. Because we completed the training we were able to share our knowledge about the products,” Tyson said. “We definitely will participate in Master Dealer 2.0 when we can. We are always willing to learn more about the products and do whatever we can to make our business grow.”

Basore Cattle Company used VitaFerm® HEAT® on its own cow-calf operation before becoming a dealer. Now that they’ve become dealers, Travis enjoys the opportunity to meet other producers and continues to learn from their customers.

“We deliver all our products, and I’ve enjoyed seeing different operations and trying to learn from our customers about how they do things. It’s great to meet other people in the cattle industry, make new friends and get new ideas,” Travis said.   

Tyson said since becoming a dealer, the most important lesson he’s learned is to treat customers how he wants to be treated when he’s making business decisions. More than anything, he likes to provide accurate information, but if he doesn’t have a definite answer he lets the customer know that and finds the correct information as soon as he can.

Tyson would suggest than all dealers, especially new dealers get out and talk to as many people as they can and share their experiences with the products. He said that their business has definitely grown by word of mouth.

And both brothers agree that gaining as much information as possible and completing trainings like the Master Dealer Program will benefit dealers – both new and experienced.

“I think that everyone that takes the time to take the training would find it very beneficial. If people take the time to set down and do it, they would gain a lot,” Travis said.

Dealer Spotlight: Share What’s On Your Heart

Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” While experience is usually a good teacher, BioZyme® Inc., wants its dealer network to have resources readily available to them to help them learn along the way.

The staff at BioZyme works to offer educational tools that will fit the needs and learning styles of its diverse group of dealers. We know that everyone is busy, and everyone absorbs information differently. That is why we offer resources like printed materials, the Online Dealer Center, webinars, the Facebook group, Area Sales Managers and office staff to assist you when it comes time to learn about products.

During the recent Dealer Retreat, dealers had the opportunity to share with each other and some of the BioZyme staff what educational tools they found most helpful and how they would like to be further assisted during a “Dealers to Dealers” session led by National Sales Director Alan Lee and Outreach Support Center Director Jennifer Miller. Survey questions were answered anonymously through a texting app that let dealers respond from their own phones and led to open discussion.

A majority of dealers did indicate that they use at least one or more of the primary forms of education available to them: their ASM, printed literature, the Online Dealer Center and BioZyme Office Support. Most ASMs do cover a large geographic area or represent a great number of dealers. In an effort to provide even more support, a dedicated call center is being rolled out this month, to help the company stay in contact with its dealers and sub dealers. Regular calls and emails will be going out to the network to ensure that the dealers have all the resources they need. Miller is heading up these efforts.

One of the best ways dealers can learn from one another is through exchange on the Message Board in the Online Dealer Center. The Message Board is an outlet to post your questions, share what has worked for you, and receive input from others in the same business.

It was agreed upon that customer testimonials and results from research trials were both useful information when sharing products with potential customers. Dealers in the sessions would like to see more region-specific testimonials. If you have a customer success stories that you would like to share with the marketing department, please contact your ASM with those success stories so they can relay information to the Marketing Team. Also, if you need specific research on a topic, check with your ASM, as he or she is a great resource.

Finally, don’t be afraid to share what has worked for you as a dealer. Share your thoughts on the BioZyme Dealer Facebook page or let us feature you in the Dealer Spotlight in VISION. Share what’s on your heart. Chances are, there is another dealer in this big network looking for a solution that you’ve already discovered. Or, if you are one of those dealers facing a challenge, reach out to another dealer. We’re in this together.

Dealer Spotlight: Taylor Goering

Taylor Goering has Ambitious Goals

Ambitious. Webster defines it as “having a desire to be successful, powerful, or famous; having a desire to achieve a particular goal; aspiring.” These are words that best describe Taylor Goering of McPherson, Kan. The 19-year-old is a sophomore at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. She also manages a boutique three days out of the week, cares for a string of at least half-a-dozen show heifers, helps her parents on their farm and is a BioZyme® dealer.

Taylor has been showing cattle for about 12 years. She shows multiple breeds, and likes to lead anything into the ring, “as long as it’s a good one.” Although, Simmentals are her favorite. She gives her parents Greg and Tammy a lot of credit and appreciation for their support in her show career and her start as a BioZyme dealer.

“My dad always said, ‘I like to get you in the ring as many times as possible.’ Without his support I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Taylor said.

And it was at one of the many junior nationals that the Goering family attends each summer where mom Tammy first learned about Sure Champ®. Tammy was looking through the trade show and came back with Sure Champ information and suggested the family might want to investigate it. The father-daughter duo were busy with cattle. Taylor said her mom went back and bought a bag of Sure Champ, and they have been hooked ever since.

“We noticed a difference in our cattle’s hair coat and appetite right away,” Taylor said. They began their on-farm dealership in 2012.

Taylor has made a personal connection with many of her customers because she is also a cow-calf producer and has traveled the U.S. going to shows and understands what her customers are looking for in a supplement.

“I can relate to a lot of my customers because we are all looking for success in our herds – either the benefits from relieving stress from show calves traveling or increasing fertility/conception rates in their herds. The best part of the products are the results. You can see the results. I really like the personal testimonies because every person has a different product they believe in,” she said.

Although the dealership started as a family affair, Taylor has taken on most of the responsibility since her parents are busy with other endeavors. Much of her customer base has been built from word-of-mouth, and people continue to call and ask about products.

Taylor said the best part of being a young dealer is the satisfaction of succeeding at such a young age and getting a head start on her future. Goerings reached VIP Status in 2015, and Taylor said it is her goal to reach that milestone again in the future. “Dreams don’t work unless you do,” is her motto.

“It’s not scary at all. I love being as young as I am, and having goals set for me within this company. It is rewarding to become a dealer because if you have a question, someone is always there to answer.  You might wonder, will anyone buy from me? But our biggest response to the product has been word-of-mouth. People will drive by our pasture, and see the orange tubs, and want to know where we get those from,” she said.

She added that as a younger person who recently “aged out” of 4-H, it is important to her to give back to the local youth programs. She said she will sponsor awards or shows that help benefit local youth with livestock projects. This is also another great way to share the BioZyme message.

Ultimately, Taylor would like to earn her bachelor’s degree in General Business, expand her dealership to a store front, and achieve the VIP Dealer Status again. Those might seem to be lofty goals to most 19-year-olds. But with the ambition that Taylor has, she knows how to convert goals into accomplishments.

Dealer Spotlight: Spring Canyon Feeds

Customer service isn’t just a catch phrase for Spring Canyon Feeds. It is a family value passed from one generation to the next. Kari Schultz, along with her brother and dad, Tyson Mann and Bruce Mann, own Spring Canyon Feeds, serving farmers and ranchers in the community surrounding Kirk, Colo., where she grew up.

“We’re not just selling a product. We strive to provide. It’s in our blood,” Kari said. “Even growing up, if we had something pressing to get done today, and a neighbor called and needed help, my dad would stop what he was doing and put everyone else first.”

That is the kind of service that Kari and Spring Canyon has provided and continues to provide since the dealership started in 2014. Kari is engaged with her customers, understands their livelihoods, and works with the resources available to her through BioZyme® to help her customers thrive.

Kari started feeding the VitaFerm® products in 2014, but with no local dealer former ASM Brad Hill convinced her it would be a good little “side business” to go along with her farming and cow-calf enterprise.

About the same time the Spring Canyon dealership started, Megan Douthit-Downey, Saint Francis, Kan., had heard about VitaFerm products from her veterinarian. Although 50 miles away, Kari was still the closest dealer who offered all the product lines Megan was looking for, but more importantly provided her great services.

“Kari is a rock star,” Megan said. “She comes out and we tell her where our hay piles are and what cuttings they are from. She core samples everything and submits samples to Dr. [Susan] Day, and Dr. Day puts rations together for us. For us, it’s about getting the most bang for our buck. The products are not always the cheapest, and not always the most expensive, but customer service goes a long way.”

As a cattle producer, Kari understand the value of forage sampling and supplementing nutrition when and where needed. She appreciates the services that BioZyme provides its customers, and more of her customers are learning to appreciate those services too.

“We believe whole-heartedly that if you don’t know what you’re feeding your cattle, you don’t know what they need. We need to make sure what they are eating is actually meeting their requirements for them to perform at their highest potential, it is necessary to know what they are lacking and provide them with those nutrients,” Kari said. “BioZyme is great at providing that service to us. I really enjoy Susan’s frankness. She lets us know what we need or what we don’t need in our rations.”

Kari said many of the more seasoned producers in her area, who at one time didn’t think their cattle needed a mineral package, are started to see the value in the products she sells, especially with the Amaferm® advantage. She said they understand that Amaferm helps their cattle put on more pounds through increased intake, digestibility and absorption, and to the producers, more pounds equal more dollars.

“Kari’s product knowledge is incredible,” said Jake Warntjes, ASM who covers Eastern Colorado, Western Kansas and Western Oklahoma. “She studies the nutrition side of things, what Amaferm will do for the animals and knows the research that backs it.”

Jake is also complimentary of her customer service skills, saying Kari is good at getting customers connected to the resources they need, such as himself or Susan for nutrition needs.

In December 2017, Kari had the opportunity to expand those services even further. She, her dad and brother purchased the feed store in their small community, and her “side business” has turned into full-time business and a service for the ranchers of Yuma County, where cows out-number people.

At the store, which is open 6 days a week, Kari sells most everything for livestock, including the BioZyme product lines, tags, sorting sticks, medicine, gloves, boots, rodent and pest control. She also carries some pet foods and small pet items. And she is expanding the services her store provides.

She has worked closely with a veterinarian to get some prescription medicines on-hand so if a rancher needs something, the vet can work through her to get one animal treated. She is also working with a Genex rep and A.I. tech to promote her services in the area. She hopes to eventually add marketing services to her store.

Keeping animals healthy and growing and keeping customers happy and returning are ways that Spring Canyon Feeds stays engaged with their customers.

Dealer Spotlight: YOU!

We know that Amaferm® is the heart of each of product that BioZyme® makes and markets, but it is the extensive network of dealers that is the true heart of our business. Without dealers our products would not be able to get into the hands of so many customers and make such a large impact on the animal nutrition industry.

With nearly 1,000 dealers spread across the country, surely there is a dealer close enough to help a cow-calf producer, an equine enthusiast or even the young person getting started with his or her first junior livestock project. The dealer network is one of our best assets, and without YOUR dedication, drive and direct relationships with so many end-users, we’d be just another supplement company.

As dealers you are the ones who have built strong relationships with our customers. You know their families, their operations, and their needs. We hope you always feel comfortable talking to us about new needs we haven’t thought about or ways to improve our products based on what the customers need and want.

Dealers provide personalized service. Yes, we strive to provide customer service every day. However, we can’t be everywhere at once. With dealers like you to provide service prior to and after the sale, you make a difference, and provide more than just a product. The service might be educating the customer about what is the right supplement to meet his or her goals. You might pull forage samples to have tested, or you might offer local community support through a cattlemen’s organization or the local youth rodeo. Local dealer support is important to you as a dealer and to us as a company, but we can’t do it alone.

Dealers are truly the heart of our business, but they are also the faces of our company. When your local customers think about ordering a pallet of Concept•Aid® or picking up some Sure Champ®, they aren’t thinking about the scientists who initiated fermentation of the Amaferm or the person who loaded that pallet back in Saint Joseph, Mo., they are thinking about you – their trusted BioZyme dealer who they have a relationship with.

It is our goal to make sure our dealers are as much as part of the company as anyone. That is why we are continually looking for ways to provide you services and information to make you more efficient in your businesses. From tools like this newsletter to the Online Dealer Center to your Area Sales Manager and the Master Dealer Training Program, we hope you take advantage of all the resources provided to you.

Dealer Spotlight: Kennel Supply LLC

Like all dealers, Jon Stidham believes in the products he sells, and he has used them first-hand for more years than he’s sold them. However, Stidham, owner at Kennel Supply LLC, is a specialized dealer that carries one product line – Vitalize® Canine Products.

Kennel Supply is a specialty business that started 10 years ago and became a BioZyme® dealer at the same time. The company sells to tracks, kennels, zoos, cat complexes and circuses, and pet owners with a majority of their business consisting of raw meat that they ship across the nation to customers for their animals.

“Ninety percent of my business is selling raw meat into the dog racing world and people who want to feed raw meat to their pets and animals, and of course if you’re going to feed raw meat, you need a product like Vitalize to help break down and absorb the nutrients in the meat,” Stidham said. “Vitalize is an important part of my business so I can upsell when people get on the raw diet.”

Stidham, who is also a dog breeder, explains that there has been a movement in the past few years to move away from processed dog food and start feeding dogs more raw meat.

“People are seeing their pets live longer and happier lives on a raw diet as opposed to cooked, processed dog food that has additives and things that are not natural to their diet,” he said.

Since carnivores eat raw meat in the wild rather than grazing in fields or eating vegetables, more people have grasped the concept. And Kennel Supply has capitalized on the opportunities that exist to supply a product that is in high demand.

As only one of a few raw meat distributors in the country, Kennel Supply gets its meat from a plant in Redgranite, Wis., that primarily harvests older dairy cows that would be undesirable for human consumption. Stidman explains that the meat is still safe for animal consumption and tested regularly by the USDA. The meat is packaged in smaller tubes for smaller operations, or in 30-pound slabs for bigger kennels, accommodating their customers’ various needs.

Stidham told of race tracks that order by the semi-truckload, or about 42,000 pounds, of raw meat every 4-6 weeks, noting why complete nutrition is so important when feeding several thousand dogs per day.

“The gut is important for nutrition absorption and adding the Vitalize optimizes the absorption of nutrients from the meat. The meat promotes muscle development, especially in the puppies and the dogs working at the track. Vitalize is a part of the complete diet for puppies, juveniles and adults. The only time our dogs don’t get it is when puppies are nursing, and their eyes aren’t open yet,” he said.

The product speaks for itself, according to Stidham, and he has never had any product complaints from his customers.

“People know and expect what they are getting with Vitalize. I have a very loyal following of customers who use the product, and large breeders who use the product comprehend the importance of nutrition, so they get the importance of Vitalize as part of the raw diet,” Stidham said.

For more information about Kennel Supply, visit kennelsupplyllc.com.