Category: What’s New

Care that comes full circle might be the BioZyme® company motto, but for one of its leading Vita Charge® dealers, that care is something put into practice every day. Tera Rooney Barnhardt, DVM, is a wife, a mom of two young children and a leading bovine veterinarian, consulting feedlots and dairies in Western Kansas. She makes it her mission to ensure that beef and dairy cattle under her watch have the best care possible.

“I think when there is a problem with a group of calves, we tend to lean toward what we can do now to fix it. A lot of times that comes in the form of an antibiotic or vaccine. These are wonderful tools for our industry, but we’ve got to be stewards of these types of tools and explore technologies that might otherwise make a consumer more comfortable to keep choosing beef and dairy at the grocery store,” Rooney Barnhardt said. “Many times, if we think about the events that led up to the wreck, we’ll do a better job of preventing or at least preparing for the next one. I’m not a nutritionist, but I’d make a pretty bad veterinarian if I ignored the largest system in a cow’s body!”

Keeping those bovine digestive systems in check isn’t always easy, but it’s a job that Rooney Barnhardt does with zest. Her passion started while growing up on her family’s farm in Southwest Kansas. Her grandfather loved cows, and “he lit a fire in my belly to love cows too,” according to the Kansas State University alumna. She earned her bachelor’s in Animal Sciences and Industry, a master’s in Biomedical Sciences and her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from K-State, before her first stint in a mixed animal clinic in rural Kansas, where she said she became acutely aware of how important the digestive system is to the health of all animals, both big and small. Today, her primary focus is on bovines, both beef and dairy.

“I hit the road every day thinking about what an awesome gig I have – I work with the people who put food on our tables. We make sure that food is safe, nutritious and sustainably produced. It’s a privilege to have consumers who want beef and dairy products for their families,” Rooney Barnhardt said.

The health and welfare of those animals starts at birth. Many of Rooney Barnhardt’s clients raise their animals from birth to harvest, so getting them off to a good start is vital. That is one reason she decided to become a BioZyme dealer.

“I was honestly frustrated that we’d see so many problems in herds or with animals that came down to nutritional deficiencies. Cow-calf herds can be raised in a low maintenance manner where I practice because of all of the available crop residues and grassland. They can be low maintenance, until they can’t. When clients would come to me with a problem, and we’d need to have a solution that made sense when you put boots on the ground – BioZyme seemed to accomplish a lot of that for me,” she said.

Although most of the cattle that Rooney Barnhart oversees are managed well, fed well, and are typically healthy, when they do get sick, she likes to use the Amaferm® advantage used in the Vita Charge to keep the animals she does have to treat healing quicker.

“If I can utilize the animal’s immune system to its maximum potential because I have every other wheel on the track, that’s how I prefer to practice veterinary medicine. I like to stay on the proactive side of problem solving. I like the Vita Charge line for this reason. I can utilize this product in its multiple forms to get an animal or a pen of animals back on track.”

And her favorite products: “I don’t leave home without a tube of Vita Charge Gel in my truck. If I’m treating individual animals, we get better results if I can get their gut back on track sooner. And since I can’t forget the other 4-legged friends on the ranch, I also like to keep Vitalize on hand. I see how many things a good farm dog can eat in a day at the ranch or dairy. Man, do they need some assistance from what I have seen!”

Care that comes full circle. For this dealer, that motto is how she lives her life.

“At the end of the day, I’m a veterinarian in the trenches of the cattle industry. I have a couple of kids at home and I feed the same beef I help raise, to my family. They drink the same milk that my dairies produce for your family. I’m excited to be a small part in the process that keeps the world fed. If you have questions about how your food is produced, please don’t listen to a celebrity, politician or athlete; check in with a farmer or veterinarian. I am happy to be that person for you.”

Hale Feeds LLC Keeps Moving Forward

“Keep moving forward.” That’s the advice that young, progressive BioZyme® dealer Tee Hale offers his contemporaries and other new dealers. “We have great products; you’re never going to lose by trying to push forward. Dive in head-first and try for the best. You’re never going to make it if you don’t try.”

Tee, along with his parents Jim and Teresa Hale, and his brother Tye own Hale Feeds LLC at Union Center, South Dakota. Tee manages the daily operations of the dealership along with the feed sales from the on-ranch “feed shed” while running about 300 momma cows with his parents. His brother lives nearby and works for a neighboring cow-calf operation.

Because he uses so much of the product himself and understands the benefits of Amaferm®, Tee said it is simple for him to sell the products to others. He can share the advantages of a high-quality program for both cattle and horses.

“I take the approach about cost, per head, per day. What are we going to put in this cow this day? What is it going to cost me? There is the opinion out there that VitaFerm® is a little costly, but it is a premium mineral, and that is what people need to understand. You’ve got your Amaferm in it, that’s a big selling point right there,” he said. “I had bought a set of 60 bred heifers last spring that I turned out on Concept•Aid® right away; and put on HEAT® through the summer. In the fall I had one open out of those 60 head. Right there I can tell that story and it gets people’s attention. For about 15 cents a day, you can feed this product and it works.”

Tee said he is excited about the new products that BioZyme is introducing; he has already begun selling the VitaFerm Concept•Aid 5/S HEAT. He said the VitaFerm HEAT is popular in his area of northwest South Dakota, as it is a cost-efficient and effective product for producers.

When Tee isn’t ranching or selling livestock feed and supplements, he likes to rodeo. He said he’s seen remarkable results with the Vitalize® products on his horses. The results he’s seen with the Amaferm advantage in his horses, has helped him promote those advantages to cattle producers too.

“There is a lot of competition in the area, and it’s all in the same price, but this one has more to it. I can feed my horse something, and I know if it works on their guts, it is going to work on a cow’s gut. And I see a huge difference in my horses,” Tee said.

Phone conversations are the most effective communication method for Tee to share his business with others. He spends parts of each day driving between his ranch and his parents’ where he has time to talk on the phone. And even though South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem never formally “shutdown” the state due to COVID-19, Tee said he likely wouldn’t have left the ranch much in March and April due to calving season. Brandings in May were really the first times people gathered, and even then, they respected one another’s space, but they don’t stress about social distancing, according to Tee.

Life will move forward as usual, and Hale Feeds LLC will have new products to market with the Amaferm advantage.